According to the latest ranking released on 17th July 2015 by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) <http://cwur.org/2015/>, Makerere University rose by 22 positions in the world from 891st in 2014 to the current 869th. CWUR publishes the only global university ranking that measures the quality of education and training of students as well as the prestige of the faculty members and the quality of their research without relying on surveys and university data submissions.

The ranking which considers eight indicators; the most prominent being quality of education, alumni employment and quality of faculty featured only 10 African Universities in the top 1,000 World Universities ranked. Makerere was ranked 7th on the African continent and was the only University outside South Africa and Egypt that made it to the top 1,000. South Africa dominated the rankings by taking up the top 5 positions in Africa, followed by Egypt that had 4 representatives as shown by Table 1 below.  

As Makerere University continues to fare well by any ranking of African Universities, the Vice Chancellor Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu attributed the favourable placements to the continued hard work and innovation by staff and students.

“Makerere values the status of being a research-led university and as such, has to make the most of all her partnerships, resources and support by development partners. I congratulate the staff and students for their continued hard work and dedication to innovation. This ranking by CWUR is another vote of confidence in your abilities,” remarked the Vice Chancellor.

“We welcome the ranking by CWUR as another independent endorsement of our progressive improvement” said Dr. Vincent Ssembatya, Director Quality Assurance in response to the latest ranking. “This is a good reflection of Makerere’s progress in the core functions of Research as well as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and Networking. Nevertheless it has shown us that we still need to work on our Teaching and Learning core function, so as to help boost the University’s performance in indicators such as Quality of Education,” he added.  

The CWUR is currently in its fourth year and it is an annually released by the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based Center. The ranking initially considered the top 100 degree-granting institutions for the 2012 and 2013  rankings but has since 2014 considered 1,000 institutions worldwide.

Table 1: Showing African Universities ranked in the CWUR 2015 Top 1000 Universities Worldwide

Article by Public Relations Office