FUTO ranks first in maiden NUC OER Ranking | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
14th January 2018
Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) has ranked first among all Nigerian universities utilising the Open Educational Resources (OER), according to the National Universities Commission (NUC). This is the first time the NUC is conducting this universities ranking exercise.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), describes OERs as any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license.  The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. Textbooks, curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation all constitute OERs.
EduCeleb.com recalls that the NUC had on 21st August, 2017 launched the Nigerian University System Open Education Resources (NUSOER) to serve as repository for all open education resources held by all universities in Nigeria.
It thereafter directed that all Nigerian universities  be ranked by the strength of their Open Educational Resources (OER). Prior to this development, no West African country was visible on the World OER Map.
NUC’s leadership under Executive Secretary, Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed had initially signed Nigeria up for the OER by also producing the  country’s first-ever draft National Policy on OER.
A twelve-member National Experts Group on OER Ranking (NEGOR) and a four-member team of external experts from outside Nigeria conducted the ranking exercise.
The universities presented in the pilot phase submitted 12,070 quality OER holdings thereby putting Nigerian universities among the best in Africa in OER.
Aside FUTO, which ranked first overall among all 50 universities listed in the inaugural edition, Nigerian universities were also ranked based on their respective ownership and generations.
EduCeleb.com gathered that the ranking involved 6 First Generation Federal Universities, 9 Second Generation Federal Universities, 11 Third Generation Federal Universities, and 10 Fourth Generation Federal Universities.
Also, 21  First Generation State Universities, 12 Third Generation State Universities, 23 First Generation Private Universities, and 20 Second Generation Private Universities were among the published list released by the NUC.
Of all First Generation Federal universities, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) ranked first. Among Second Generation Federal universities, FUTO ranked first as well. The University of Abuja was also ranked first among Third Generation Federal universities as the Federal University Ndufu-Alike was top among Fourth Generation Federal universities in the OER.
The state universities featured in the ranking had the Lagos State University taking the top shot among First Generation State Universities. No information was provided by the NUC about Second Generation State Universities. However, for the Third Generation State Universities, Edo State University, Iyamho had the highest OER score.
Among the First Generation Private Universities in Nigeria, Covenant University was declared the first while for the Second Generation Private Universities, Mountain Top University had the highest rank among them.
Relative to the overall 2017 OER Ranking of Nigerian universities, FUTO had a 30 OER score to emerge first. It is followed by Mountain Top University, which has a 26.3 OER score. In the third position is Edo State University, Iyamho with a 25.1 OER score.
Other top ten ranked universities are UNILAG, the University of Ibadan, Covenant University, Redeemer’s University, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, and Landmark University with OER scores of 25, 25, 25, 21, 19.4, 19, and 16 respectively.