The reputation of universities worldwide has been judged by how they perform on the world rankings of universities. Besides world rankings, the academic rankings of universities are also done country by country and continentally. We, therefore, have African, Australian, American, European and Indian university rankings, for instance.
Although mired in some controversies such as subjectivity in the ranking process, the academic rankings of universities continue to be considered a reasonable way of judging the quality of research and teaching activities of universities. So, like what happens in a soccer league, universities that are ranked in the top 100 universities on the global scale, for example, are regarded as the best universities in the world.
Equally, universities that appear among the top ten African universities are regarded as the best universities with a high reputation for academic performance in terms of research and teaching. Like in soccer leagues in which team officials and supporters celebrate the high performance of their teams as they appear at the top of log standings, universities and their stakeholders celebrate when their institutions appear in the top range of academic rankings. The opposite is true in both soccer leagues and university rankings where there is no joy for those at the bottom of the logs. Next time when your favourite soccer team performs superbly or badly, think of university rankings. I have used the soccer analogy to make it simple to have a better and more general understanding of university rankings.
Over the years, university rankings have been conducted notably by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also called the Shanghai Rankings; the QS World University Rankings; and Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. There are other ranking systems in addition to these three, but I think the above-mentioned suffice for this article.≤Now coming to our neighbour, South Africa, it seems something positive has been happening and is happening in the higher education sector in Mzanzi, as the country is affectionately referred to by its citizens. Every year, South African universities dominate in the top ten rankings of African universities. According to a recent report published by Business Insider, five South African universities are among the top eight universities in Africa forecast for 2023. Egypt has two universities and Nigeria only one in the list of top eight African universities. As usual, the University of Cape Town is ranked the first out of the eight African universities, followed by the University of Witwatersrand in second place, Stellenbosch in the third position, then the University of KwaZulu Natal in the sixth position, and the University of Johannesburg in sixth place. In fourth place is Nigeria’s Ibadan University and the University of Cairo (Egypt) is ranked fifth while Mansoura University (Egypt) anchors the log in the eighth position.
These results show an impressive performance by South African universities in the league of African universities. The question that those in higher education and interested parties may ask is: What is it that South African universities are doing right to achieve top rankings in Africa every year? Through my research and critical review of the concerned South African universities, I found out that professors’ research output and quality of teaching are the major factors that have enabled these universities to be placed high on the log standings of African universities every year. These universities’ research excellence is high. This is high-impact research that matches research conducted in world-class universities such as Harvard University, Cambridge University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. This research excellence is buoyed by billions of dollars that are purposefully allocated for meaningful and impactful research that solves the problems of society. The National Resources Foundation, fellowships, trusts and other foundations contribute to funds to be used in higher education. Having billions of dollars in reserve for research in universities is one thing, and having that research done is another thing. I was impressed by the quality of professors and other academics South African universities hire to do the research and teaching. These are men and women of high academic credentials who have vast experience in research and teaching, men and women who have an international reputation in academia, and men and women who have international research networks.
What I found more impressive is that the professors who drive the wheels of research at these universities of different nationalities – South Africans, Indians, Zimbabweans, Americans, Kenyans, Zambians, British – the list is endless. For, this is what universities must do to achieve their missions – recruiting talented professors from all over the world to build a strong and unshakable cadre of researchers and teachers who will do the job they know well. I also noted that the research indices of these universities are high in Africa. This means that academics in these institutions are publishing their research output in indexed journals which has a high impact. The more the research papers are cited, the higher the reputation of these universities becomes. Related to research excellence is the high quality of teaching. Armed with their high-impact research and excellent facilities, the professors in these universities can produce competitive and employable graduates. Just producing thousands of graduates at every year’s graduation ceremony is not enough. The employability of graduates is a crucial factor that matters so much in university rankings. Take for instance graduates from the University of Cape Town (my alma mater) or Stellenbosch University – which employer would not want to employ them?
In short, research excellence and the high quality of teaching are some of the factors that have propelled South African universities to the top of university rankings in Africa and globally. Other universities in Africa are encouraged to take a leaf from these South African universities.
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