Reimagining University Rankings for the African Context
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Reimagining University Rankings for the African Context
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By Isaac Kwaku Fokuo, Principal, and Aparupa Chakravarti, Director, Botho Emerging Markets Group
November 25, 2022
An abridged version of this article was published in The East African Magazine on 1st November 2022
Higher education - an increasingly contentious space
A number of fault lines have emerged and deepened in university systems around the world. One of these is the cost of education. From the Chilean Winter, to South Africa’s #FeesMustFall, to the USA’s ticking time bomb of student debt, to more recent calls in Kenya for higher university fees to ease the burden on public universities and, by extension, the government, the issue of prohibitive tuition costs has become a recurrent, visible, and perhaps even existential problem for public and private universities alike.
The house always wins
There is another, perhaps more insidious, but no less urgent issue at play - that of university rankings. Global university rankings have been criticized for various reasons. They have been found to discourage localization by creating blanket standards for all universities, irrespective of their institutional aims and national contexts. This further suggests that global rankings do not accurately represent individual universities, or the national higher education ecosystems in which they operate. Consequently, there tends to be relatively little evolution in how universities stack up against one another, with roughly the same institutions topping the list each year.
This is particularly apparent in the case of African universities. Africa is the only region in the world devoid of either national or regional ranking systems. In the absence of their own rankings, the only real yardstick against which African institutions can be measured is global rankings, in which they consistently fare poorly, with the exception of a few universities that perform well relative to their African counterparts. That said, even these higher performing universities rarely break into the top echelons, e.g. only University of Cape Town made it to the top 200 in Times Higher Education’s 2022 university rankings, featuring at 183.
Unfortunately, this lack of representation in global rankings has very real consequences. A case in point is the UK government’s latest scheme to attract international global talent, where graduates who were awarded degrees from a list of eligible institutions can now apply for two- or three-year work visas, depending on the level of their academic qualifications. No African university made it on to any of the lists dating back five years.
A change is gonna come
Should African universities continue to strive to compete in global rankings? Sure. But, equally, it is time for Africa to generate its own definitions and metrics for what constitutes a successful African university in the 21st century. And with the ability to assess existing rankings, Africa has the chance to do some things differently and, in doing so, get some things right. Hopefully.
An impactful university ranking cannot, however, be conjured out of thin air; nor can it simply be superimposed onto existing systems. Rather, the creation of an African university ranking - whether continental, regional, or national - will have to occur in tandem with some seismic shifts to the status quo.
Admittedly, this will not be an easy task. But change - even radical change - is possible, with a holistic view and a long-term approach.
Something borrowed and something new
A university ranking for Africa need not be something entirely novel - it can be built on a foundation of existing variables that are relevant for African contexts. Quality of teaching and education is likely to be a universally relevant dimension. Meanwhile, other dimensions may be especially or uniquely applicable to Africa. In a continent where countries contend with dangerously high youth unemployment rates, universities might be judged according to their ability to equip students to secure employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, in a way that perhaps their global counterparts need not be.
In the interest of not painting all institutions with the same brush, we ought to rethink our understanding of what a ranking can look like in the first place. In lieu of assigning universities composite scores that fundamentally tell us very little about an institution’s actual strengths and weaknesses - what, really, are we to understand about a university that ranks #3 versus one that ranks #50? - perhaps we should instead use disaggregated ratings across certain key dimensions that are themselves weighted differently, based on core institutional traits. For example, certain variables might be more or less significant depending on if a university is public or private. Similarly, if a university self-reports that it prioritizes teaching over research, then it probably should not be scored in the same way on research-related indicators as a research-centered university. In this manner, the ranking retains its core purpose - to provide a quantitative gauge of performance - while also allowing for greater heterogeneity and nuance in their depiction of universities.
Finally, we need to find an equilibrium between what is feasible today and what may be possible tomorrow. If the majority of African universities currently do not collect or measure certain types of information, should that then mean that either they or the information in question should be excluded from the ranking? Or rather, should the goal be to use the rankings as a way to motivate institutions to start building the systems, processes and data they may not yet have in place?
A conduit for progress
For a university ranking to be truly meaningful, it should not just be a static tool that is merely rejigged once a year as universities move up and down the scoring ladder. Rather, it should be embedded in the same systems it is intended to appraise, creating appropriate benchmarks for what African universities can and ought to aspire towards, while maintaining feedback loops that allow it to evolve in line with shifting needs and realities. In this manner, the African university ranking should not only serve as a barometer for university performance on the continent, but also act as a catalyst for positive, systemic change.