THE Impact Rankings 2022 – 80 African universities rate highly

There are 80 African universities in 10 countries featured in the Impact Rankings 2022 produced by Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. They are among 1,524 institutions from 110 countries ranked globally, based on their impacts on the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each university was rated on four goals.

Africa is led by Aswan University in Egypt, which is ranked 67 overall, followed in second position by the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, in position number 69 overall.

Aswan University was highly rated for having a strong academic footprint on institutions for peace and justice, responsible consumption and sustainable production, sustainable cities and communities as well as affordable clean energy, by Impact Rankings 2022, which was published this week.

The University of Johannesburg was found to have high impacts on the eradication of poverty, quality education, life below water and strong institutions for peace and justice.

Three other South African institutions and one Egyptian university were placed on the new ranking index among the best 200 universities globally. They are the University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria, the University of the Witwatersrand and Ain Shams University.

The University of the Witwatersrand was cited as having impact on decent work and economic development, responsible consumption and economic growth, and partnerships goals. In this regard, the University of Cape Town was cited as having high impact on quality education and poverty eradication goals. It was also rated for having impact on clean water and sanitation as well as a strong peace and justice agenda.

Ain Shams University’s best impact was on life below water, and it also did well on life on land and climate action goals, while the University of Pretoria performed highly on life on land, partnerships, gender equality and peace and justice goals.

Among the world’s top 300 universities were two Ghanaian institutions – Ashesi University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

South Africa had the largest number of the highly ranked universities and none of its eight universities in the ranking index was below the top 600, while Egypt hosts nearly half of all the African universities on the index.

Some analysis

Commenting on the performance of African universities, Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE World University Rankings, said the ranking allowed universities on the continent to shine in a way that many other global rankings fail to do.

“As the Impact Rankings focus on social and economic impact, through universities’ contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, we can recognise niche strengths and uncover real pockets of excellence across the African continent,” he said in a briefing for University World News.

According to Baty, current data show how African universities are helping to deliver a more sustainable future.

He extolled the performance of Aswan University and the University of Johannesburg for being ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. In this regard, Baty pointed out that two Nigerian universities – namely Afe Babalola University and Covenant University – alongside Egypt’s Cairo University, and the University of Ghana, were among the top 400 universities globally.

Uganda’s Makerere University and Tunisia’s University of Tunis El Manar joined South Africa’s University of the Western Cape, Nelson Mandela University and the distance University of South Africa among the world’s top 600 universities.

Other universities in this category were Egypt’s cohort of Alexandria University, American University in Cairo, Assiut University, Benha University, the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Mansoura University, Suez Canal University, Tanta University, Kafrelsheikh University and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport.

According to Baty, there are many examples of global leadership on individual SDGs coming from Africa. He cited the sterling impact of South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, which emerged as number one globally on the Sustainable Development Goal on decent work and economic growth.

“Egypt’s Ain Shams University took third place in the world for its contribution to the goal on clean water and sanitation, while South Africa’s University of Johannesburg took third position in the world for its contribution to the eradication of poverty,” Baty said.

He stated that African universities are playing a leading role in making the world a better place.

In total, Egypt had 36 universities in the rankings, Nigeria nine, South Africa and Morocco eight each, and Ghana six, Algeria and Tunisia five each, while Tanzania, Sudan and Zambia had one university each in the ranking.