No African university is among the world's best 300 universities, according to the current global university ranking.
The University of Cape Town, South Africa, which is the number one university in Africa, is ranked 303rd in the global ranking.
The number one university in Ghana — the University of Ghana — is ranked 1,983rd in the global ranking.
This came to light at the official opening of the International Association of Universities (IAU) 2017 Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon in Accra on Thursday.
On the theme: “Leadership for a changing public-private higher education landscape”, the conference is being attended by representatives from more than 60 universities worldwide and seeks to create a platform for networking and the exchange of notes.
Started in 1950, the IAU serves as a voice for higher education and seeks to promote and advance higher education globally.
Reaction
Reacting to the ranking, the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, described it as “reinforcing the stereotype”.
He wondered about the kind of information that was fed into the ranking, citing, for instance, the fact that the IAU continued to rank the Central University, where he had been the third vice-chancellor, based on its first vice-chancellor.
He, however, challenged African universities to put their act together and work harder to advertise themselves in the global village, saying: “Africa has a huge potential in higher education which has been exploited only superficially.”
Way forward
On the way forward, Prof. Yankah charged African universities to constantly publish the dissertations and theses of postgraduate and doctoral students, instead of the current situation where most of such research were locked up in drawers.
He also recommended the marketing of African universities outside the continent, as well as the opening up of centres of global studies on other continents for networking with the Africa world.
Pulling African universities along
Prof. Yankah urged the IAU to revise its policies and encourage more African universities to both enrol as members and participate in conferences.
“Let such policies ensure maximum participation by host communities through the application of differential rates of enrolment and registration,” he said, adding that this year’s IAU conference, the first on African soil, “triggers dialogues and actions that will progressively narrow the intellectual gap between Africa and the rest of the world”.
He reminded the participants that the conference would achieve its optimal effect if innovative ideas in funding tertiary education were tabled for discussion at the various fora.
He said the conference outcomes should also reckon with the overall financial implications of networking within such an association made up of a diversity of nations and universities of varying global prominence.
Sources of funding
Welcoming the participants, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, said the exigencies of the time had made it imperative that a public university such as the University of Ghana look beyond the public purse for funding in order to survive and provide quality teaching and learning.
He said the advent of open online courses had compelled the traditional universities to invest massively in distance learning and other technological ways of learning.
Promote higher education
The President of the IAU, Prof. Pam Fredman, told the participants that they had the opportunity and the platform to promote higher education.
She said the future was a knowledge-based society globally, adding that it was the way to achieve Agenda 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Source: Daily Graphic
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I am surprised at your comment. You claim to have earned a double masters degree from a university that is ranked 32nd in the world. Did your university have masters degrees holders as lecturers? Academic qualification of university lecturers is one of the important criteria for this rankings. Please stop displaying your ***barred word*** about the issue of university rankings here.
Is that any surprise? not at all. we don't even have a good system of assessment. UG students have been copying for years. copy copy work work all over . the worst of all student don't do thesis anymore they get contractors to do it for them, how ***barred word***. I am even surprise there is an African country in the first 400. look there are thousands of great universities in the US who will not even appear. we should be grateful
there should be public universities at ALL regional capitals offering ALL relevant courses to develop the regions locally and nationally.
The main reason of the African Uni rank so poor is that the so call professors, instead of them to stay at the uni's, to do research, they get employment at the government departments and they are not good at there as they dont have management skills. You check the developed countries, you will not see a professors and DR's in the government, all of them are in the UNI's and doing research for their country. In Ghana, when someone is a DR or a professor, we put him at the CEO or Department head and they dont do anything as they dont have management skills and they are there for people to call him or her, Dr or Prof. We need them to be at the Uni's and Education institutions to help doing researchs
our universities are a joke. The university lecturers are old people who dont want to go on retirement. they teach with old 1960s notes in order to remain in the university because they cannot survive in the real world. They also teach with outdated materials which render our university graduates UNEMPLOYABLE. On top of all this, the lecturers & university administrators prevent & frustrate the recruitment of new younger lecturers who bring newer ideas.
African universities must become center of excellence and problem solving. Until that happens, these universities will continue to score low and poor. The poor and obsolete curriculum that produce graduate unemployment must be replaced with courses that provide attractive skills to industry. African universities need modern curriculum that are responsive to local and global demands. Professors must be challenged to write books that provide critical analysis to problem solving .Students must be educated and fed with practical courses and books that further personal and professional development. Globalization and technology is changing every thing rapidly and until African universities change their curriculum, policies and mindset, it will continue to produce unemployed graduates who cannot think critically and solve problems. In American schools, children in elementary, primary and middle school have access to overwhelming computers and information technology. They are far more advanced than students in African universities.By the time they get to high schools , they are already problem solvers and can easily get jobs without even going to colleges. No wonder in the United States, high school diploma holders get jobs that most African college graduates can only dream about. Until African politicians stop pretending and acting like all is well, this continent will continue to be in darkness. Only a new awakening will save Africa.
We will continue to rank low because, some of us have attended University ranked 32nd in the world ranking with two Master degrees. We want to lecture in Ghana but the authorities tell us we should have PhD. Are we serious as a Nation? These rankings are determined by knowledge that find it's way in the classroom, research,quality programs and quality and internationally acclaimed lecturers in these Universities.Is it brain drain caused by inappropriate policies or the policymakers sometimes don't think right?
why are we making noise? the worst university in the states is far better and the students are more intelligent than our so called premier university. Our Africa education is very very poor. Even when we use to have the O'and A' levels, we can be a little bit proud, where is our education today? we have allowed this greedy politicians to toil with our education because of what they will get. After that, they fly their children out of the country
Stop criticizing your ranking and start doing something about it to improve your ranking. Ghanaians are notorious at crying foul without any constructive measures to improving the quality of education in the country. The entire educational system lacks infrastructure for improving quality instructions. Lack of resources often hamper delivery of critical analysis research endeavors. This is indeed sad because research coming from Africa when compared to other regions of the world tends to be inferior. I was educated at the University of Ghana and that education is not what is going on at Legon at this moment and Kwesi Yankah knows it.