The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has been ranked the number one university globally for its research influence. The University was ranked first from a list over 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories. It has also been ranked the number one university in Ghana, the top university in West Africa, and part of the top five universities in Africa.
This was contained in the 2022 Times Higher Education annual rankings. The huge numbers of universities ranked by the 2022 World University Rankings make them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.
Universities that published high-impact research on Covid-19 soared up the league table, with China reaping the most rewards.
UCC is the first university in Ghana to have ever achieved this position since the Times Higher Education (THE) annual rankings commenced nearly two decades ago.
Indicators
The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas. The areas are teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
This year’s ranking analyzed more than 108 million citations across over 14.4 million research publications, and included survey responses from almost 22,000 scholars globally.
Overall, about 430,000 data points from more than 2,100 institutions were collected.
Trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, this year’s league table reveals how the Covid-19 pandemic has started to shift global higher education performance.
The University of Oxford had topped the ranking for six consecutive years. Mainland China had two institutions, Peking University and Tsinghua University, in the top 20 for the first time with both sharing the 16th place.
Institut Polytechnique de Paris had the highest new entry at 95th place, following a merger of five institutions.
The US is the most-represented country with 183 institutions and also the most represented in the top 200 (57), although its share of universities in this elite group is falling.
Mainland China now has the joint fifth-highest number of institutions in the top 200 (up from joint seventh last year), overtaking Canada and on a par with the Netherlands.
Six new countries, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Palestine and Tanzania, featured in the table compared with last year.
On the teaching pillar, Harvard University topped while the University of Oxford topped the research pillar, with Macau University of Science and Technology leading the international pillar.
Overall, 1,662 universities were ranked with a further 452 universities listed with “reporter” status. This means that they provided data but did not meet the eligibility criteria to receive a rank.
