Makerere University has featured as the lone Ugandan University to break South Africa’s dominance of the top five places by taking third place according to Times Higher Education (THE)‘s latest rankings.

It was followed by the University of Stellenbosch in fourth place and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in fifth place.

THE based its predictions solely on universities research influence and only considered institutions that had published a minimum of 500 research papers in the five year period assessed with at least 50 papers per year.

Nigeria’s University of Port Harcourt came sixth; University of Ghana was placed twelfth, while Egypt was represented by Suez Canal University– sitting at fourteenth.

South African institutions make up more than half the list with eight universities featured, while Morocco has two institutions represented: the University of Marrakech Cadi Ayyad at 10th and the University of Hassan II Casablanca at 15th.

The ranking was formulated using Elsevier’s Scopus database to highlight some of the continent’s top performers in terms of how often research papers are referred to and cited by other academics across the globe.

Times Higher Education released the names of the top 15 institutions on Wednesday ahead of the inaugural Times Higher Education Africa Universities Summit.

Phil Baty, THE rankings editor, said: “This is an experimental and preliminary ranking based solely on research, and only on one aspect of research – how many times research papers are cited by other academics.

“When we develop a full Africa University Ranking, we expect to add many more indicators, examining things like a university’s economic contribution, its civic engagement and, of course, its teaching.”

The top 15 snapshot was calculated using the ratio of the citations received by an institution’s publication output between 2009 and 2013 and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field.

THE’s Africa Universities Summit will look at topics including higher education funding in the continent and preventing brain drain. Speakers will include Mabel Imbuga, vice-chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology; Rwekaza Mukandala, vice-chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam; and Cheryl de la Rey, vice-chancellor of the University of Pretoria and vice-chair of the US-based Talloires Network, an international association of universities committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings annually list the best global universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

FACTS ABOUT MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

Makerere University was founded in 1922, and later became an independent national university in 1970. Makerere University is the largest and oldest public university in Uganda.

The university developed a focused research agenda in line with the national government’s policy objectives, and seeks to support those programs with a multidisciplinary approach ranging from natural sciences to economics and education.

Spread across three campuses, Makerere University has a population of over 40,000, with more than five percent of the student body made up of international students.

Makerere University offers 145 undergraduate courses, over 140 Postgraduate courses, and 135 Masters Degree courses.

Home to a top medical school, Makerere University also partners with the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to host a medical exchange program in which students complete rotations in the fields of cardiology, family planning, pediatrics, infectious disease, and trauma (emergency medicine), among many others.