UB maintains position amongst top-tier African universities
The University of Botswana (UB) has made notable progress towards its vision of transforming into a distinctive centre of excellence in Botswana, Africa and globally, thus maintaining its position as the top ranked university in Botswana.
This is confirmed by the results of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 which ranks universities in accordance with international academic benchmarks. The ranking is based on 18 calibrated performance measures that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.
With the majority of Africa’s ranked universities coming from three populous countries of Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa, UB’s ranking is a significant accomplishment as it represents Botswana’s ability as a small state to compete and be visible in Africa and the world. This places UB in the league table of globally recognised universities and amongst the top tier African universities in the global rankings. A key contributor in UB’s ranking is the impact of its research output, which is a key indicator of the quality of research undertaken and the university’s role in spreading new knowledge and ideas. Measured as a percentage, the university has this year (2023/24) scored 63.9%, a significant major improvement from the base line of 13.7% set during 2020/21.
This year witnessed a further growth in the number of universities participating in the Times Higher ranking exercise. Out of an estimated total of 29, 257 universities that have been established across the world, (2, 110 in Africa and 14 in Botswana), The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2024 included 1, 904 universities from across 108 countries and regions. In order to be included in the rankings, a university must first of all meet a set of criteria which pre-qualify it to be ranked. A further 769 universities from across the world, including 240 from Africa, submitted data but failed to meet the criteria. Over the past few years, Africa has witnessed a dramatic improvement in the Times Higher Rankings starting from a base of 4 (2012) to 113 in the current 2024 world rankings.
Not only has the number of African universities included in the ranking increased significantly but the performance of those institutions has risen faster than the world average. UB is clearly part of this trend and has successfully maintained its relative ranking position not withstanding an increase in the number of universities participating.
A central part of UB’s vision is to be a distinctive centre of academic excellence. The Times Higher Education Global Ranking has ranked three subject fields. These are:
● Clinical and Health ranked 13th in Africa and 513 globally.
● Social Sciences ranked 31st in Africa and 823rd globally.
● Physical Sciences ranked 62nd in Africa and 1047th globally
The top-ranking universities in all three subject areas are the elite universities in the UK and USA. These are Oxford (Clinical and Health); Massachusetts Institute of Technology joint first with Stanford (Social Sciences) and California Institute of Technology (Physical Sciences). Along with the number of universities as well as the number of regions and countries being ranked increasing on a year-by-year basis, this makes UB’s performance more than commendable. Clinical and Health clearly excels being ranked amongst the top 500 global universities in the world. For 2024, all three of the subject areas ranked (Clinical and health Physical Sciences and Social Sciences) have improved their performance by maintaining their relative rankings in the face of increasing competition. For more information, kindly contact:
*Dr Faith Rapuleng-Tuelo*, is Director of Public Affairs, Email:
Phone: +267 3552284 / +267 3552286