By Ntokozo Nkambule
The University of Eswatini (UNESWA) has been ranked 107 out of a total of 200 Universities on the African continent for the year 2023.
The rankings were conducted by uniRank, a leading international higher education directory and search engine featuring reviews and rankings of over 13,800 officially recognized Universities and Colleges in 200 countries.
UniRank notes that it currently includes worldwide higher education institutions that satisfy the following requirements:
· Are officially recognized, licensed, and/or accredited by national or regional bodies such as Ministries of Higher Education or government-recognized accrediting organizations.
· Are officially licensed or authorized to grant at least four-year undergraduate degrees (Bachelor’s Degrees) and/or postgraduate degrees (Master’s and Doctoral Degrees).
· Provide higher education courses mainly in a traditional face-to-face learning format delivered through on-site facilities.
According to uniRank the institutions that it does NOT include in its ranking, are the following;
· Two-year degree-granting institutions such as community colleges, vocational colleges, training colleges, etc.
· Distance learning institutions.
· Niche higher education institutions such as seminaries and other theological higher-education institutions, military or law enforcement higher-education institutions.
· Any other higher education institution that does not satisfy the above inclusion criteria and requirements.
Worth noting is that UNESWA has improved compared to the 2021 rankings when they were ranked 138 out of 200.
The neigbhouring University of Botswana is impressively ranked at 36 out of 200, while the University of Zimbabwe sits at 44 out of 200.
The University of Cape Town is the number one ranked university on the continent for 2023 and is followed by the University of the Witwatersrand, with the University of Stellenbosch coming third and the University of Pretoria sitting fourth.
Interestingly, there are only two non-South African universities that make it in the top ten, the American University in Cairo and the Cairo University which are both Egyptian universities.
The least-ranked university on the continent is the University of Embu which is based in Kenya and the penultimate-ranked university is the Universite Chouaib Doukkali which is based in Morocco.