The University of Botswana (UB) is ranked 47th on the African continent while globally it is in the 1201+ band overall.
This is according to the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, which measures the success of universities in delivering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The rankings are based on indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas namely: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The University Rankings 2022 include more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.
UB also had a good International Outlook score of 66.1, surpassing the likes of University of California, University of Notre Dame and University of Florida which scored 65.1, 59.0 and 42.7 respectively. International outlook is regarded as a mark of a top institution, relevant both to international and domestic students.
“It is measured by three indicators: international to domestic student ratio, international to domestic staff ratio, and the proportion of research that involves international collaboration,” says the World University Rankings.
While the rankings show a drop from a global ranking of 1001+ in 2021 to 1201+ in 2022, UB sits at the top locally. Statistics indicate that the number of students per staff is 17.1, the student ratio of Females to Males is 58 : 42. The percentage of international students is 4%.
In a bid to systematise Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their research and learning programmes, UB became the first and only institution of higher education in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to have an implementation plan for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4).
Since majority of universities in SADC member states do not have SDG operational plans, they are in a strategic partnership with UB’s SDG4 Committee to accelerate SDG attainment and ensure that their research and learning programmes are inclusive of SDGs. Universities across the region are also liaising and networking with each other to craft an African universities hub for SDGs using the University of Botswana SDG4 Committee as a model.
Once more, the University of Cape Town (UCT) tops both continentally and in the region. It is the only university in Africa ranked in the 101–200 band overall by the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. At position 183, UCT has an overall score of 54.9.
The Times Higher Education rankings provide the definitive list of the world’s best universities, with an emphasis on the research mission. It is the only global university league table to judge research-intensive universities across all of their core missions: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); industry income (knowledge transfer) and international outlook (staff, students and research). It uses 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons.
