UoN the only Kenyan university in top 1,000 on global ranking

When it comes to ranking universities as per their web presence and impact on the global stage, the University of Nairobi (UoN) continues to lead the pack in Kenya.

UoN is the only Kenyan university in the top 1,000 institutions of higher education on the planet, coming in at position 990.

The latest edition of the rankings, accurate as per the end of January 2019, see UoN’s stature drop from the position 851 it held in the world in July 2018.

According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, a host of Kenyan varsities also dropped in the global list that arranges institutions of higher learning based on their web presence and impact.

In fact, in the top 10 Kenyan varsities as per the Webometrics Index, only Strathmore University improved, moving eight places up the global list from a ranking of 4,520 to a new position of 4,512 in the world.

Strathmore, ranked seventh in Kenya, retained its place as the highest ranked private university in the land, ahead of Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA).

CUEA, coming in at position nine in the country, fell from position 5,942 in the world to stand at a global rank of 5,950.

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The top ten in Kenya is dominated by public universities who occupied seven of the first ten slots.

UoN, Kenyatta University (1,596), Egerton University (1,881), Moi University (1,951), JKUAT (2,767), and Maseno University (4,126), occupy the first six positions, with Strathmore and CUEA sandwiching Masinde Muliro (5,222).

The top ten is completed by USIU-Africa, who are position 6,682 in the world.

Kibabii University, which was in the top 10 in 2018, is one of the varsities to have shown a significant drop, slumping by 1,380 places to now rank in position 7,822.

Technical University of Kenya is one of the better performers over the past six months, having jumped 188 places to now rank as 7,602 in the world and position 12 in the country.

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Of the 127 higher education institutions ranked in Kenya, the final three spots are occupied by Kenya Water Institute, South C (27,430), Starnet College, Nairobi (27, 505) and Multimedia Academy Kenya (28,016).

The Webometrics Index seeks to promote promote academic web presence, supporting the Open Access initiatives for increasing significantly the transfer of scientific and cultural knowledge generated by the universities to the whole Society.

On its website, Webometrics says, “Since 2004 and every six months an independent, objective, free, open scientific exercise is performed by the Cybermetrics Lab (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) for the providing reliable, multidimensional, updated and useful information about the performance of universities from all over the world based on their web presence and impact.”

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