The University of Namibia (UNAM) continues to break barriers, this time debuting, as the only Namibian university, on the Times Higher Education (THE) World Rankings 2023. UNAM first featured on the most authoritative World University Rankings as a reporter institution in 2022. The institution is now ranked among the top 800 universities globally. This comes after the number of African countries in the rankings doubled over the last five years, with 25 African universities making their debut appearances in the 2023 ranking as reported by THE on 12 October 2022.
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According to the same source: now, there are 97 institutions from 17 African countries in the ranking in total, compared to only 9 countries in 2018.
This year has seen the rankings debut of 25 African universities, with Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria as the top three African Science giants with 26, 15, and 12 institutions, respectively, while Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Mauritius all make their first appearance.
UNAM is the only ranked institution from Namibia and is ranked among the 601-800 universities category, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. The institution is in ‘good company’, being ranked in this category with universities that have been in existence for much longer, such as the University of Johannesburg, North-West University, University of the Western Cape, Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique) in Southern Africa, as well as University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and the University of Nairobi (Kenya).
Citation scores of the university’s publications (UNAM – 90.3, Average for Africa – 47.7) were important drivers for this improvement – publishing in higher quality journals that are read and quoted by other academics is clearly paying off. The institutions’ ‘International Outlook’ is also an important contributing factor (UNAM – 64.2, Average for Africa – 43.5) showing that UNAM is indeed “An Engaged University”, and part of the global academic fraternity. This is further evidenced with UNAM Vice Chancellor, Professor Kenneth Matengu, being elected as President of the Pan African University.
Original story by: Prof Ahmad Cheikhyoussef, with contributions from Prof Davis Mumbengegwi
