The Central University of the Technology (CUT), Free State, is among nine South African public universities rated in top 50 Times Higher Education’s (THE) inaugural Sub-Saharan Africa university rankings.
The rankings for 2023 were officially announced by the Sub-Saharan Africa Forum on Monday (26/06), at its first forum in the region held in partnership with the Ashesi University.
The Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings, produced in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, ranks 88 universities from 17 countries in the region.
CUT is ranked 41st with a score of 52.4 points. Topping the list in terms of points is the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), in first position (81.9), the University of Johannesburg (UJ) second (79.6), University of Pretoria (UP) fourth (78.7), and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) sixth (71.1). The Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania is in third position with 79.2 points.
South Africa has four universities in the top ten. Other ranked South African universities are the University of Venda in 11th place, University of South Africa (Unisa) 12th, Durban University of Technology (DUT) 13th, and the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) in the 61 to 70 ranking range.
Nigeria, with 37 universities listed, has the highest number of listings in the ranking, followed by South Africa’s nine. Ghana and Kenya each have seven, and Somalia and Uganda five universities each. According to the Forum, the new ranking highlights the strongest universities in Sub-Saharan Africa across a comprehensive range of performance indicators covering five pillars: Access and fairness, Africa impact, teaching skills, student engagement, and resources and finance.
The organisation stated that the ranking provides a rich source of data on the differences between public and private universities. Furthermore, the body stated that of the 88 ranked universities, 59 (67%) are public, 21 (24%) are private and not-for-profit, and eight are private for-profit (9%). Seven of the top ten universities are public.
Public universities received an average overall score of 50, and charged students a median of £966 (approximately R22 000) per year. By comparison, private institutions scored an average of 43, with not-for-profits charging £1,922 (roughly R43 000), and for-profits charging £3,291 (approximately R77 000) annually.
Public providers scored higher, on average, across four of the five pillars, namely access and fairness; Africa impact, resources and finance, and student engagement. Private universities generally perform better on teaching and employability skills.
