NUR improves in rankings

The National University of Rwanda (NUR) has moved up ten places in the latest ‘Webometrics Ranking of World Universities’ that is largely based on global performance and visibility of the universities on the web.At the continental level, NUR currently stands at the 68th position moving 10 places up from number 78 in last year’s ranking of world universities and is ranked 4,407 in the world. The Kigali Institute of Science and Technology is ranked 8,510 in the world but misses out of the top 100 ranked universities in Africa.Webometrics ranked 20,372 universities with the Kigali Institute of Education placed at 12,567 position, Kigali Institute of Health at 15093 position while Kigali Independent University was placed at 15,739 position Other ranked Rwandan institutions of higher learning are Umutara Polytechnic and Institute of Agricultural technology and education at positions 18,928 position and 19,557 respectively. Makerere University is the top ranked university in the East African Community region at number 12 in Africa followed by the University of Nairobi at number 17, the University of Dar es Salam at number 28. According to the ranking, the highest ranking university in Burundi, Universite Lumiere de Bujumbura, did not make it to top 100 African list but emerged at the 9,863 position globally.Speaking to The New Times, the Rector of the National University of Rwanda, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, said that his institution had put in place measures to improve its ranking. “Normally, these rankings are done based on the visibility of the university. The more you make your research findings online, the more you rise in ranking. Our website has been static in the past, yet it is what is based on to rank the universities,” he explained. “We have realised that in the past, we have not been able to market ourselves, yet there is much we do that qualifies us to be ranked higher. We have now set up a committee chaired by the Director of Research to ensure that all the research papers and activities of the universities are put online.”The Rector of KIST, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, clarified that the Webometrics ranking is based on the information provided on the websites not the quality of education. “This means that our website is not providing enough information. Of course, we are not happy with the position, but we need to improve the way we do business,” she noted. Globally, Harvard was ranked the world’s best university while at the continental level, University of Cape Town topped the African table and ranked 387th worldwide. The Webometric system uses four indicators for ranking, namely: ‘size’, ‘visibility’, ‘rich files’ and ‘scholar’. Size refers to the number of pages recovered from four search engines: Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Exalead. Visibility refers to the total number of unique external links received (inlinks). This is done using Yahoo Search which is believed to be the only search engine that can confidently provide such information.