IMPROVE UNESWA RANKINGS

Sir,

We must get the University of Eswatini to make it to the top 50 Universities in the Times Higher Education Rankings.
Currently, it is not even in top 100. UNESWA is the pride of the Eswatini nation, and has helped many people to start good careers in many spheres of life. One of the region’s billionaires, Patrice Motsepe also studied at UNESWA.

Funding

In times past, UNESWA was respected by many institutions in southern Africa, also surpassing Lesotho and Botswana institutions. However, all that is gone now. The institution has suffered a lack of adequate funding for many years now, which has led to boycotts and, eventually, dwindling results.  It is in a sorry state of dilapidation, and only desperate parents allow their children to stay on campus. His Majesty the King has challenged the university to produce more research, especially in technology and innovation.
But, it remains to be seen if the university can do that in its current state. In 2020 the institution introduced a research on a certain species of bats and we were all proud of the development, but that was the end. Nothing more came up.

Discipline

The king said all successful economies globally are technology based and, therefore, academics should focus on this discipline. UNESWA is lucky because it has partnered with Taiwan institutions, which are knowledgeable in ICT. It must leverage on these opportunities. It is time the institution claims its rightful position in the Times and University rankings. Proper universities do not fight for high numbers of students, but for high rankings. The difference between the World University Rankings and the Sub-Saharan Africa Rankings is that the World University Rankings provide an insight into highly research-intensive universities across the world. They are ideal for students who are interested in postgraduate careers in academia.Overall, Egypt and Algeria are the two best represented African countries in the ranking, with 28 and 15 universities each. While the top 10 is dominated by universities in South Africa, 12 South African universities are represented in the full ranking. Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa all have universities in the top 1 000 of the global ranking.

Performance

The ranking rates university performance using 18 indicators measuring teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook and industry. For a long time, now we have been seeing the same universities maintaining top spots in the rankings these are: University of Cape Town; Stellenbosch University; University of the Witwatersrand and others.
A university does not need to have advanced technology to make it in the top 10. It needs dedicated lecturers and students.

SR

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