Strathmore is the highest ranked university in Kenya, according to the January 2009 Webometrics ranking of world universities. At position 12 in Africa, Strathmore is also the highest ranked African university outside Egypt and South Africa.

 

South Africa’s University of Cape Town, at 359 in the world, is the highest ranked university in Africa, according to the latest ranking of universities. The top seven universities, as well as those in the ninth and eleventh positions in Africa, are South African. The American University in Cairo and Cairo University are in positions eight and ten respectively.

 

The University of Nairobi is the second highest ranked university in Kenya at position 22, up from 25th position in July 2008. Other Kenyan universities in Africa’s top 100 are Egerton at position 50, Jomo Kenyatta at 82, Kenyatta at 84, and Moi at 86.

Kenyan universities improved in their world rankings between July 2008 and January 2009. Strathmore rose sharply from position 4,780 to 2,404. Nairobi improved from position 4,338 to 4,046.

 

Of the world’s top 200 universities, 123 are North American, 61 are European, and 14 are in the Asia-Pacific region. The highest ranked university outside the US is the University of Toronto at position 25. At position 27, Cambridge University, England, is the highest ranked university outside North America. At position 44, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico is the highest ranked university in the non-English speaking world.

Ranked separately are the top 1,500 business schools in the world. In Kenya, Strathmore Business School is ranked at position 768, and the Kenya Institute of Management is at position 915.

 

The “Webometrics Ranking of World Universities” is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain.

 

Isidro Aguillo, co-ordinator of the ranking, believes the size of the North American advantage points to a digital divide between regions that cannot be explained simply as a question of resources.

 

“We often talk about a digital divide between the rich and the poor - so American universities score higher than African universities,” he says, “but the rankings reveal a divide between the rich and the rich, and this is not a matter of resources, it is a matter of leadership in the internet.“

 

“In Spain, for example, online university libraries tend to be little more than databases,” says Aguillo. “In the US, they are much, much more and include things like reading lists and other things which facilitate students’ work, so they do not have to visit the library to get what they need.“

 

Aguillo believes that webometrics’ regional rankings, which divide the world into seven regions, can be especially useful for universities further down the tables. Comparing yourself to your regional counterparts and using that as a yardstick to better your position is a lot more useful, he believes, than taking top US universities as your reference. Students from developing countries aiming to study abroad can use the regional rankings to find study opportunities closer to home that they might not otherwise be aware of.

Higher education institutions worldwide are much more concerned about league tables and ranking systems than expected, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “There is enormous attention given to every league table that is published as well as its quality ranking. And they are taken seriously by students, government and especially by the media,” says the main author of the study, Professor Ellen Hazelkorn from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

 

The study gives an insight into the impact of league tables and rankings on universities around the world, and shows how their influence is far wider than intended.

They were originally conceived as providing comparative information to key audiences such as students, public opinion and parents. But the survey of leaders and senior managers in more than 200 higher education institutions in 41 countries reveals that the tables and rankings are influencing key policy-making areas such as the classification of institutions and the allocation of funds.

 

“Because of this, they have a huge influence on university reputations and thus they promote competition and influence policy-making,” Prof Hazelkorn said.