The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has maintained its position as the first in research influence in Africa in the 2023 Times Higher Education Rankings.

The rankings for 2023 includes 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making it the largest and most diverse university ranking to date. The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the seventh consecutive year. Harvard University remains in second place, but the University of Cambridge jumps from joint fifth last year to joint third.

“The University of Cape Coast is the topmost ranked University in Ghana and West Africa and it is among the top 5 Universities in Africa in the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The University of Cape Coast also ranks first globally for research influence.”
Times Higher Education

In the 2022 ranking, the university equally earned the bragging right as the best university in Ghana, the best in West Africa, the 4^th best university in Africa and the best university globally for research influence.

Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Mauritius entered the ranking for the first time.

This year’s ranking analyzed over 121 million citations across more than 15.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 40,000 scholars globally. Overall, about 680,000 points from more than 2,500 institutions that submitted data were collected.

Trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, this year’s league table reveals how the global higher education landscape is shifting.

The US is the most-represented country overall, with 177 institutions, and also the most represented in the top 200 (58).

Rankings of other universities

According to Times Higher Education Ranking, Chinese universities are closing in on the US’ global dominance of higher education. However, internationalisation has proved to be a weak link for the Asian superpower, according to the latest edition of Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings. It indicated that the biggest global ranking to date reveals that the research supremacy of US universities is waning, in part because of a growing gap in output between elite universities and the rest.

“When it comes to research quality, as measured by citations, China is catching up. Over the past year, China’s average score for citations increased significantly, from 55.6 to 58.0; in the same period, the US score dropped slightly, from 70.0 to 69.4 (based on universities ranked in both years).”
Times Higher Education

Times Higher Education indicated that in 2019, the average citations score for China was 41.1, and that climbed to 55.6 in 2023 (based on universities ranked in each of the five years). The figures for the US were 75.9 in 2019 and 72.9 in 2023.

“Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the third and fourth highest-scoring universities in China, respectively, both increased their overall score significantly this year, driven largely by robust performances on citations.”
Times Higher Education

The average overall score for universities in the US increased by 0.1 between 2022 and 2023, while in China the rise over the same period was 1.6. The average increase across the world was 0.7.

Harvard topped the teaching pillar, while Oxford leads the research pillar. Atop the international pillar is the Macau University of Science and Technology.

Aside the 1,799 universities ranked, a further 526 universities are listed with “reporter” status, meaning they provided data but did not meet the eligibility criteria to receive a rank, but agreed to be displayed as a reporter in the final table.