TPA Watchman

The University of Botswana has made notable progress towards its vision of transforming into a distinctive centre of excellence in Botswana, Africa and globally, thus maintaining its position as the top ranked university in Botswana.

This is confirmed by the results of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 which ranks universities in accordance with international academic benchmarks.

The ranking is based on 18 calibrated performance measures that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

A key contributor in the UB’s ranking is the impact of its research output which is a key indicator of the quality of research undertaken and the university’s role in spreading new knowledge and ideas.

Measured as a percentage, the University has this year (2023/24) scored 63.9, a significant major improvement from the base line of 13.7% set during 2020/21. This year witnessed a further growth in the number of universities participating in the Times Higher ranking exercise.

Out of an estimated total of 29, 257 universities that have been established across the world, (2,110 in Africa and 14 in Botswana), The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2024 included 1, 904 universities from across 108 countries and regions.

In order to be included in the rankings a university must first of all meet a set of criteria which pre-qualify it to be ranked. A further 769 universities from across the world including 240 from Africa submitted data but failed to meet the criteria.

With the majority of Africa’s ranked Universities coming from three populous countries, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa, UB’s ranking is a significant accomplishment as it represents Botswana’s ability as a small state to compete and be visible in Africa and the World.

This places the University of Botswana in the league table of globally recognised universities and amongst the top tier African universities in the global rankings.

Over the past few years Africa has witnessed a dramatic improvement in the Times Higher Rankings starting from a base of 4 (2012) to 113 in the current 2024 world rankings. Not only has the number of African universities included in the ranking increased significantly but the performance of those institutions has risen faster than the world average.

The University of Botswana is clearly part of this trend and has successfully maintained its relative ranking position not withstanding an increase in the number of universities participating.