Google Scholar Ranking of African Universities

As competition in the ranking world intensifies, Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds are  diligently promoting their various regional ranking, data processing and event management projects. The latest is THE's African summit at the University of Johannesburg.

Three weeks ago THE issued what they described as an "experimental and preliminary" ranking which consisted of 15 universities ordered according to the number of citations per paper normalised for field and year. An interesting innovation was that citations were fractionalised so that participants in large collaborative projects would be credited in proportion to their fraction of the total contributors .

This is just one indicator and it is not really a measure of research influence, but rather of research quality and it is still skewed by participation in multi-contributor papers in medicine and particle physics. It is unlikely that the University of Port Harcourt or Universite Cadi Ayyad would  be in the top ten of any other indicator.

THE have indicated that they will add another 15 names to the list at the Johannesburg summit.

The table below was compiled for the purpose of checking on the claims of THE or other rankers that might attempt to evaluate African universities. It simply counts the number of results (2012-2014: exclude citations and patents) from a query to Google Scholar. Data was compiled on the 25th and 26th of July. The criteria for inclusion were being in the top 50 of the Webometrics rankings or the 15 universities in the THE list. The top university in any country not included was added from either the Webometrics or ic4u rankings.

This database includes papers, reports, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings and so on. It is certainly not a measure of research quality but rather of the volume of any activities connected with research.  In the case of the two Kenyan universities it probably reflects the size and inclusiveness of the university repositories.

One thing about the Google scholar list is that it confirms suspicions that the quality of Egyptian universities has been underestimated by the big name rankers. For further evidence one might look at data from social media such as LinkedIn or just contrast the aspirations of Egyptian students in the revolutions of 2011 and 2013 compared with those of students at the University of Cape Town and Durban University of Technology.

Rank	University	Country	Google Scholar  Results
1	University of Cape Town	South Africa	17,000
2	Cairo University	Egypt	16,800
3	University of Pretoria	South Africa	16,500
4	University of Nairobi	Kenya	16,400
5	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa	15,800
6	University of Kwazulu-Natal	South Africa	15,500
7	Stellenbosch University	South Africa	14,900
8	University of Ibadan	Nigeria	14,800
9	University of South Africa	South Africa	13,500
10	Kenyatta University	Kenya	12,000
11	University of Johannesburg	South Africa	11,200
12	Makerere University	Uganda	10,400
13	North West University	South Africa	10,100
14	University of Ghana	Ghana	8,330
15	Alexandria University	Egypt	7,610
16	University of Lagos	Nigeria	7,220
17	Rhodes University	South Africa	7,210
18	University of the Western Cape	South Africa	6,870
19	Obafemi Awolowo University	Nigeria	6,800
20	Mansoura University	Egypt	6,480
21	University of the Free State	South Africa	6,400
22	Addis Ababa University	Ethiopia	6,210
23	Zagazig University	Egypt	6,160
24	American University in Cairo	Egypt	5,770
25	University of Ilorin	Nigeria	5,620
26	Assiut University	Egypt	5,580
27	Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology	Ghana	5,080
28=	University of Zimbabwe	Zimbabwe	4,830
28=	University of Port Harcourt	Nigeria	4,830
30	University of Botswana	Botswana	4,260
31	University of Zambia	Zambia	4,240
32	University of Dar Es Salaam	Tanzania	4,120
33	University of Khartoum	Sudan	4,110
34	Suez Canal University	Egypt	3,670
35	Tanta University	Egypt	3,600
36	Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology	Kenya	3,520
37	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University	South Africa	3,490
38	Covenant University Ota	Nigeria	2,950
39	Helwan University	Egypt	2,940
40	Benha University	Egypt	2,570
41	Minia University	Egypt	2,390
42	University of Malawi	Malawi	2,340
43	Université Abou Bekr Belkaid	Algeria	2,290
44	Universityof Tunis	Tunisia	2,270
45=	Université Kasdi Merbah Ouargla	Algeria	2,240
45=	Cape Peninsula University of Technology	South Africa	2,240
47	Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar	Senegal	1,950
48	University of Namibia	Namibia	1,760
49	Universite de la Reunion	Reunion	1,690
50	Durban University of Technology	South Africa	1,560
51	University of Mauritius	Mauritius	1,490
52	Université d'Abomey-Calavi	Benin	1,460
53	South Valley University	Egypt	1,440
54	Universidade Eduardo Mondlane	Mozambique	1,420
55	Beni-Suef University	Egypt	1,400
56	Université Cadi Ayyad Marrakech	Morroco	1,370
57	Université de Ouagadougou	Burkina Faso	1,300
58	University of Rwanda	Rwanda	1,270
59	Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene	Algeria	976
60	Université de Lomé	Togo	784
61	Université de Bamako	Mali	660
62	Kafrelsheikh University	Egypt	618
63	University of Swaziland	Swaziland	615
64	Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny	Ivory Coast	590
65	Université de Kinshasa	Domocratic Republic of the Congo	558
66	National University of Lesotho	Lesotho	555
67	Université Constantine 1	Algeria	468
68	Bejaia University	Algeria	413
69	Universidade Jean Piaget de Cabo Verde	Cape Verde	407
70	Université Mohammed V Souissi	Tunisia	361
71	National Engineering School of Sfax	Tunisia	271
72	Université Marien Ngouabi	Republc of Congo	256
73	University of Liberia	Liberia	255
74	Université Djillali Liabes	Algeria	243
75	Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey	Niger	206
76	Misurata University	Libya	155
77	Université Omar Bongo	Gabon	138
78	University of The Gambia	Gambia	130
79	Universidade Católica de Angola	Angola	115
80=	Université de Dschang	Cameroons	113
80=	Université de Bangui	Central African Empire	113
82	Université de Nouakchott	Mauretania	108
83	Eritrea Institute of Technology	Eritrea	76
84	Université de Djibouti	Djibouti	66
85	Université de Toliara	Madagascar	59
86	Université Hassan II Ain Chock	Morocco	55
87	University of Seychelles	Seychelles	52
88	Mogadishu University	Somalia	51
89	Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial	Equatorial Guinea	40
90	Universite Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry	Guinea	21
91	University of Makeni	Sierra Leone	18
92	John Garang Memorial University	South Sudan	12
93	Hope Africa University	Burundi	3
94	Universite de Moundou	Chad	2