University of Rwanda headquarters in cpital Kigali
Rwanda’s best high learning institution, the University of Rwanda (UR) has improved by 930 places in global ranking of Webometrics, a ranking system for the world’s universities.
Webometrics ranking is based on measurements of how strong a university is present on the web by its performance, scholarly articles, researches, among others.
In the latest ranking of July 2021, UR ranked 2977th from 3,907th position globally in July 2016 which is an improvement of 930 positions in five years.
On the continent, UR which is a combination of six Colleges was ranked 104th in Africa, from 123rd in July 2016 which an improvement of 19 positions.
The top five Universities globally, according to Webometrics rankings are from the United States of America including Harvard, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.
On the 6th Position globally, is the University of Oxford from the United Kingdom (UK).
The top five Universities in Africa are also from one country−South Africa.
They are the University of Cape Town, University of Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria, and the University of KwaZulu Natal.
The 6th University is from Egypt−Cairo University.
In East Africa, the leading Universities are the University of Nairobi (Kenya) in the 13th Position and Makerere University from Uganda in the 14th Position both at the continental level.
In Rwanda, the University of Rwanda is ranked 1st, the second is Institut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri(INES), the third is University of Global Health Equity, followed by Adventist University of Central Africa and the University of Kigali (UK).
The sixth in Rwanda is Kigali Independent University (ULK).
“The more you are ranked in the upper positions, the more opportunities of attracting international people. It also means the University is becoming a credible source in academics, for example in consultancy, but also a criterion for parents who want to send their children in universities across the globe,” Darius Murangwa, Acting Division Manager Of Communication, Internationalization and Alumni Relations at UR said.
Murangwa said better rankings are a result of the quality of research output which has improved over time.
“Good ranking positions also means that the University will be able to compete on getting research grants. It also gives credit and trust to the lecturers. The lecturers from well-ranked Universities can also compete for grants personally to conduct their researches,” Murangwa further said.
He added that the University is working hard to create a strong E-learning platform and lecturer’s website portal and the areas of specialization that can be accessed by all people globally.
Other efforts in place at university intend to build a comprehensive research database which will ease accessibility of research publication.
He pointed out that such improvements are likely to push up the UR in future rankings.
The webometrics system ranks over 26,300 universities globally and 1,520 universities in Africa.
The Ranking happens twice a year; in January and July.
At the continental level, the University of Rwanda (UR) missed a place in the top 100, standing at the 104th position.
However, UR has improved 19 places up from the 123rd it ranked in July 2016.
“The Webometrics University Ranking is a ranking system based on the university web presence, visibility, and web access. This ranking system measures how strongly a university is present in the web by its own web domain, sub-pages, rich files, scholarly articles and performance,” the information on the Webometrics reads.
“The central hypothesis of this approach is that web presence is a reliable indicator of the global performance and prestige of the universities and as such, is an indirect way to measure all the university missions (teaching, research, transfer). Although the Web is universally recognized as one of the most relevant tools for scholarly communication, it is still very rare these indicators are used for the evaluation of scientific research and the academic performance of universities,” the Webometrics info reads.
The information also reads that the webometric indicators are provided to show the commitment of the institutions to Web publication.
