The recent survey by the respected Times Higher Education on higher learning institutions has placed five South African universities in the top 100 of the new global rankings.
Times Higher Education supplement assessed more than 700 universities in the five BRICs countries and 17 other countries classified as emerging economies. University of Cape Town was ranked 3rd, WitWatersrand 15th, Stellenbosch 21st, KwaZulu-Natal 45th and Pretoria at 78th.
Past surveys have also highly ranked universities in Cairo, Dar es Salaam among the top universities in the world.
University of Cape Town:
The University of Cape Town recently ranked one of the top tertiary institutions among developing nations. It lures brilliant young minds from across Africa and beyond. What started out as boys’ school in 1829 is now a university recognised worldwide for its research – particularly in science. It’s the site of the world’s first heart transplant and it counts five Nobel laureates among its former students; two of them for medicine. Management is determined to maintain that record of excellence.
University of Lagos:
The University of Lagos which was the very first university established by the Nigerian Government just two years after the country’s independence from Britain. Fifty-two years on, the university has grown from a small institution set up to produce professional manpower for the country to one of the most famous universities in Africa churning out thousands of graduates every year. The university is by far the most popular in Nigeria.
With just 131 students when it was founded in 1962, the university now has a population of over 40,000 students and counting. The number of faculties has increased from a modest three to twelve, and besides bachelor’s degree, it also offers masters and doctorate degree.
University of Pretoria
South Africa’s University of Pretoria，TUKS as it is known, has a wide range of subjects for students but it is their sports department that has set it apart from some of the other Universities in the country in recent years. Its rowing squad was one of the surprise packages of the London Olympics – with the lightweight fours winning gold. And some of that success is thanks to this High Performance center based at the University of Pretoria.
The University’s sporting focus is not only beneficial to elite athletes who are chasing their Olympic dreams but also allows sports scientists to get essential top-level hands on experience.
High profile sports people that have attended the University include Oscar Pistorius, Caster Semenya and Victor Matfield. It is not just sports are the university, those that attend need to find time to study.
SIMAD University: Somalia
Access to higher education is now possible in Somalia after many years of conflict that saw institutions of learning collapse. Universities are up and running, they are churning out young graduates who see themselves navigating through the fragile security into a brighter future.
Simad University started as an institute for higher learning in 1999 before turning into a full-fledged university in 2011. But even as students graduate from Simad University, the risks are high, sad memories of the 2009 suicide attack on graduating students are still fresh on their minds. Female students cover themselves with veils in class, for fear of being identified by assailants.
Over the last three years more students graduated from Simad University than any other in Mogadishu. The reason is partly due to the courses it offers, and the fact that the president was once part of the administration of the university raises its profile”
Simad has a postgraduate exchange programs with open universities in Malaysia. Its student’s hope to complete their masters degrees with Malaysian universities while still in Mogadishu. Simad has alumni of 1678 students.
