‎FACT CHECK: Did Daily Trust misrepresent Times Higher Education’s 2026 university rankings as FactCheckHub Claimed?

‎Last week, ‎FactCheckHub, an online platform established to combat misinformation, accused Daily Trust of posting a misleading infographic on Nigeria’s top 20 universities. The infographic was designed based on Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. However, FactCheckHub put up a story in which it stamped the infographic as MISLEADING and shared same on its social handles.

“A FactCheckHub investigation found that @daily_trust‘s infographic ranking Nigeria’s top 20 universities is misleading. The list lacks a transparent, verifiable methodology and should not be treated as an authoritative ranking,” the report read.

‎FactCheckHub concluded that Daily Trust’s infographic did not accurately reflect the official 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, arguing that the University of Ibadan, the University of Lagos and Bayero University, Kano, are Nigeria’s three highest-ranked institutions, according to the report.

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‎FactCheckHub also asserted that institutions such as Al-Hikmah University, Godfrey Okoye University and Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria should not have appeared in the infographic because they were not on the 2026 World University Rankings.

It also claimed that “the infographic shared across social media”, listed Afe Babalola University, Covenant University, and Redeemer’s University as Nigeria’s top three universities, ahead of the University of Lagos and University of Ibadan, which the platform claimed were the correct ones.

“The graphic has been widely shared on social media, with many Universities like Al-Hikmah University, Kwara State, celebrating their purported emergence as top 20 Universities in this year’s ranking,” the report read.

Review of ‎‎FactCheckHub’s piece shows that it is misleading because it assessed Daily Trust’s infographic against the wrong Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. The platform used a different Times Higher Education ranking from the one reflected in the infographic.

‎Evidence shows that the universities and their order in Daily Trust’s infographic correspond with the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026 (formerly THE Impact Rankings), an official global ranking published by Times Higher Education.

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By comparing the infographic with the THE World University Rankings 2026 instead of the THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, FactCheckHub conflated two distinct ranking systems that measure different aspects of university performance.

‎THE publishes several independent global university rankings, each designed to measure different dimensions of university performance.

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‎These include: World University Rankings; Sustainability Impact Ratings; Asia Rankings; Subject Rankings; Arab Rankings; interdisciplinary science ranking and Latin America university Rankings.

‎Each ranking applies a distinct methodology and evaluates different performance indicators.

‎The World University Rankings assess universities using indicators such as teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook and industry engagement. The Sustainability Impact Ratings, on the other hand, measure universities’ contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through performance across the 17 SDGs and an overall sustainability score.

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‎As a result, the rankings are independent of one another and are not expected to produce identical results.

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‎Daily Trust’s infographic reflects the Sustainability Impact Ratings. ‎A review of the official Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026 shows that the universities featured in Daily Trust’s infographic correspond with Nigeria’s performance in that ranking.

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‎Some of the institutions listed in Daily Trust infographic are:

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‎Afe Babalola University =72 globally (highest-ranked Nigerian university);

‎Covenant University = 201–300;

‎Redeemer’s University = 0201–300;

‎Landmark University = 0301–400 and

‎University of Lagos = 601–800

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‎Similarly, institutions questioned by FactCheckHub, including Al-Hikmah University, Godfrey Okoye University and Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria, all appear in the official THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, notwithstanding their absence from the THE World University Rankings 2026.

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‎This demonstrates that the infographic is consistent with an official Times Higher Education ranking.

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‎The methodological flaw in FactCheckHub’s analysis. ‎The central flaw in FactCheckHub’s assessment lies in its choice of reference. ‎Rather than verifying the universities against the THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, whose results correspond with the infographic, FactCheckHub evaluated them against the THE World University Rankings 2026.

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‎This approach compares two separate ranking systems that use different methodologies, different performance indicators and different evaluation criteria.

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‎Consequently, the finding that the infographic “does not accurately reflect the official rankings” is based on the assumption that there is only one official Times Higher Education ranking. That assumption is incorrect.

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‎Both the World University Rankings and the Sustainability Impact Ratings are official Times Higher Education rankings, but they measure different aspects of institutional performance and therefore produce different league tables.

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‎The appearance of universities such as Afe Babalola University, Covenant University, Redeemer’s University, Al-Hikmah University and Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria is entirely consistent with the official Sustainability Impact Ratings dataset.

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‎Conclusion

‎The available evidence does not support FactCheckHub’s conclusion that Daily Trust’s infographic misrepresented the Times Higher Education rankings.

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‎Instead, the evidence shows that the infographic reflects the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, one of Times Higher Education’s official global ranking systems.

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‎By evaluating the infographic against the THE World University Rankings 2026 rather than the THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026, FactCheckHub compared two different ranking frameworks and reached a misleading conclusion.

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‎Accordingly, the claim that Daily Trust’s infographic “does not accurately reflect the official rankings” is itself misleading, as it combines two distinct and officially recognised Times Higher Education ranking systems.

Below are pictorial evidence of the ranking on THE Website:

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