History has been made once again as Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State was ranked 3rd among Nigerian universities that participated in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking of World Universities.
This is the 2nd time the 12-year old university was rated by the renowned London-based global body. In the 2022 edition of World Universities’ Impact Ranking, AE-FUNAI was ranked 6th among Nigerian universities that participated in the exercise.
A further breakdown of the 2023 ranking also shows that AE-FUNAI emerged 1st amongst government-owned universities in Nigeria that were ranked by the body, while it was further ranked 1, 021 out of 1,591 universities that were ranked globally.


The Times Higher Education Impact Ranking measures global universities’ success in delivering the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Goals (SDGs) in the discharge of their academic activities – teaching, research and community service (outreach), and stewardship.
The university made great strides in all the 17 goals. Worthy of special mention are goals 4 (quality of Education), 5 (Gender Equality), 7 (affordable and clean energy), and 17 (partnerships). Nevertheless, its major impact was in goal 13, which deals with Climate Action. This is an affirmation of the positive effect of the Campus-Green Initiative of the University where over 33, 000 trees have been planted on campus to curtail the challenges of climate change. More so, the activities of the Centre for Climate Change and Development and the University’s partnership with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), which has promoted climate action in Ebonyi state, are worthy of mention and commendation.
In recognition of this outstanding feat, the University was invited to the Times Higher Education (THE) African Forum in Ghana on June 1st, 2023 where the result of the 2023 Impact Ranking was unveiled.
The other universities that were ranked in Nigeria apart from AE-FUNAI that was ranked 3rd out of over 250 universities in the country include: Afe Babalola University (1st), Covenant University (2nd), Babcock University (4th), Edo State University (5th), University of Ibadan (6th), University of Lagos (7th), Lagos State University (8th), Obafemi Awolowo University (9th) and Veritas University, Abuja (10th).
While commending the university staff and students for their contributions in putting the University on the global map, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Elom noted that the new accomplishment represents a momentous occasion for the university, and an indication of the significant relevance of the institution in the comity of globally-acclaimed universities based on verifiable indices.
The Vice-Chancellor further urged the different faculties, academic departments and directorates to double their efforts as the university strives to become a world-class institution that is globally-recognized for the outstanding quality of its teaching, research, community service and alumni.
He further commended the Directorate of Internationalization, Advancement and Global Ranking under the leadership of Dr. Chukwunonso Peter Okoli, for ensuring that the University participated in the ranking, and also the Director of Academic Planning, Prof. Dr. Jonny Ogunji for laying the solid foundation.