African TN Members Shine in New Rankings - Talloires Network of Engaged Universities

In Africa, engaged universities are beginning to gain recognition, as evidenced by the newly released Thompson Reuters university rankings. These global rankings examine more than 6,500 of the world’s leading universities. Seven out of the top-ten from Africa are signatories to the Talloires Declaration:

Ranking	University	Country
1	University of Cape Town	South Africa
2	University of Witswatersrand	South Africa
3	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
4	University of Pretoria	South Africa
6	University of Johannesburg	South Africa
9	Makerere University	Uganda
10	University of Ghana	Ghana

South African universities dominate the ranking, including some with a close connection to our network, such as three of the hosts of TNLC 2014 (Cape Town, Witswatersrand, and Stellenbosch), one YEPI member university (Cape Town), and the home of our steering committee Vice Chair Cheryl de la Rey (University of Pretoria)

The only universities listed in the top-10 that are not yet Talloires Network members include the University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa), Cairo University (Egypt), and Ain Shams University (Egypt).

During last year’s Talloires Network Leaders Conference, attendees discussed the need for engaged universities to be recognized in global rankings, which often tend to solely focus on research outputs and career placement for graduates. In the conference call to action, they stated a need to “influence the global university ranking systems to take civic engagement seriously and to reduce the negative effects of the ranking systems on the public service responsibilities of higher education.”