THE Ranking 2015: Top 30 Universities In Africa

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If I ask you this question: What are the best Universities in Africa?

I’m sure you might start quoting results from the following University ranking systems:

• 4icu
• Webometrics
• Journals consortium

However, your answers may take a major shift soon. This is because one of the best and wildly popular University ranking systems in the world – Times Higher Education (THE) has started ranking a considerable number of African universities. It recently released a top 30 list ranking the best Universities in Africa.

The list shows what a new ranking being discussed at the THE’s inaugural Africa Universities Summit might look like. Only universities from 10 African countries made the top 30 list.

South African Universities dominate the list

South Africa universities dominated the list followed by universities from Northern Africa. In total, South Africa universities appeared 12 times and universities from North Africa 11 times.

University of Cape Town unsurprisingly topped the list, followed by University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and Makerere University in Uganda.

Only 3 Universities from West Africa made the list. They are:

• University of Port Harcourt (Nigeria) – 6^th.
• University of Ghana (Ghana) —12^th.
• University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon) – 29^th.

 

Addis Ababa University is the only university from Northeastern Africa to make the list. University of Nairobi in Kenya is the second and only country from east Africa to make the top 30 list. According to Phil Baty, editor of the THE world University Rankings, this top 30 list is designed “to get a conversation going”.

“Naturally what you find is the richer, better-funded universities in Cape Town and Johannesburg, that are more likely to attract and retain the leading scholars; they can offer slightly better terms and conditions and it means they are publishing higher quality work in higher quality academic journals,” he said.

 

How the list was generated

The top 30 list of best African universities was calculated using the ratio of citations received by an institution’s publication output between 2009 and 2013 and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field.

 

Requirement to be included in the table

An institution must have published a minimum of 500 research papers in the five-year period assessed (2009-2013), with at least 50 papers per year.

 

Top 30 Universities in Africa list

Rank	Name	Country	All publications (2008-13)	Citation Score
1	University of Cape Town	South Africa	5540.21	99.90
2	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa	4387.17	99.76
3	Makerere University	Uganda	1112.69	99.72
4	Stellenbosch University	South Africa	4357.33	95.48
5	University of KwaZulu-Natal	South Africa	4235.09	89.41
6	University of Port Harcourt	Nigeria	573.55	88.92
7	University of the Western Cape	South Africa	1154.77	84.61
8	University of Nairobi	Kenya	671.72	84.60
9	University of Johannesburg	South Africa	2192.74	83.64
10	University of Marrakech Cadi Ayyad	Morocco	910.82	78.61
11	University of Pretoria	South Africa	4544.33	75.89
12	University of Ghana	Ghana	804.53	73.31
13	University of South Africa	South Africa	981.67	72.51
14	Suez Canal University	Egypt	998.98	69.69
15	University of Hassan II Casablanca	Morocco	960.25	69.03
16	Addis Ababa University	Ethiopia	893.90	64.84
17	Rhodes University	South Africa	1296.96	64.54
18	University of the Free State	South Africa	1512.56	62.83
19	North-West University	South Africa	1707.94	60.75
20	University of Tunis	Tunisia	879.63	57.26
21	Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax	Tunisia	822.31	57.24
22	Université Mohammed V — Agdal	Morocco	1503.69	56.85
23	American University in Cairo	Egypt	700.89	56.40
24	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University	South Africa	885.77	53.29
25	South Valley University	Egypt	636.85	52.49
26	Alexandria University	Egypt	2550.15	52.24
27	Assiut University	Egypt	1588.64	50.41
28	University of Sfax	Tunisia	2355.30	49.79
29	University of Yaounde I	Cameroon	876.33	49.72
30	Minia University	Egypt	694.79	48.36