By Prince Acquah, GNA
Cape Coast, Oct. 14, GNA – The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has for the second consecutive time been adjudged the best university in Ghana and West Africa by the Times Higher Education (THE).
The 2023 World University Rankings (WUR) released on Wednesday, October 12, 2022, also ranked UCC as the fourth-best university in Africa and among the top 400 globally.
The school has, however, dropped 23 places from its position as the number one in terms of research influence, globally to the 24th position.
The WUR ranked a total of 1,799 institutions in 104 countries based on 13 performance indicators that measure the universities’ performances in teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
This year, THE analysed over 121 million citations across more than 15.5 million research publications and added survey responses from 40,000 scholars globally.
In all, more than 680,000 data points were collected from more than 2,500 institutions that submitted data.
A statement dated Thursday, October 13, 2022, and signed by Major Kofi Baah-Bentum (Rtd), Director of Public Affairs, UCC and copied to the GNA in Cape Coast on Friday, said the achievements demonstrated the reputation of the school’s scholarly research output in the past sixty years.
“By this feat, UCC has also demonstrated its contribution to higher education and the impact of its scholarly research in Ghana, Africa and globally,” the statement added.
The Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) and the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, commended the staff, students, and all stakeholders for their various contributions towards the “sterling achievements.”
Regarded as the most prestigious global ranking, the annual WUR is used by many key higher education stakeholders including governments, universities and students in decision-making.
The rankings are also used by faculty to inform career decisions by university leaders to help set strategic priorities, by governments to help monitor policy and by some bankrollers for institutional funding decisions.
Despite dropping to the 24th position in research, the statement said UCC remained the only university in Ghana to achieve the feat since the annual rankings commenced some 20 years ago.
GNA