African Varsities Rated Poorly

By Eric Sande

The seventh World Universities ranking released on Thursday by the British Times Higher Education placed African universities in bottom list. South Africa escaped the list of shame as its University of Cape Town was ranked 107th among the global top 200 institutions becoming the best from Africa.

The continent’s only higher education bright spot was scooped by Harvard, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Princeton resting at the top five slots.

Factors considered in the ranking criteria included the volume of research undertaken and how the institutions were relevant to the job market. Others were the number of students admitted against that of academic staff, diversity on campus- a sign of how global an institution is in its outlook, and the impact of the research conducted. Institutions which published fewer than 50 papers a year were excluded from the ranking.

Ann Mroz, a lead researcher said: “The ability of a university to attract the very best staff from across the world is key to global success.”

Prof Goolam Mohamed bhai, former secretary general of the Association of African Universities said Africa inherited an education system that was a carbon copy of its colonisers. He emphasized that it was now expected to compete on a completely non-level playing field which is not only unfair but also inappropriate.