2021 World Universities Ranking has a lot of surprises even for the traditionally best universities in Ghana. The list has some new entrants and some unfamiliar names. Without calling out names, some prominent institutions are missing from the list. You can also take a look at this list of top universities in Ghana

Universities in Ghana – 2021 Ranking

Rank	University	City – Region
1	University of Ghana	Legon, Accra
2	Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology	Kumasi, Ashanti Region
3	University of Cape Coast	Cape Coast, Central Region
4	University for Development Studies	Tamale, Northern Region
5	University of Education Winneba	Winneba, Central
6	Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration	Achimota, Accra
7	University of Mines & Technology, Tarkwa	Tarkwa, Wetsern Region
8	Kumasi Technical University	Kumasi, Ashanti Region
9	Ghana Technology University College GTUC	Accra
10	Ho Technical University	Ho, Volta
11	Ashesi University	Brekuso, Greater Accra Region
12	Regent University College of Science & Technology	Mallam, Accra
13	University of Health and Allied Sciences	Ho, Volta Region
14	Central University	Miotso-Dawhenya, Greater Accra Region
15	Valley View University	Oyibi, Greater Accra Region
16	University of Energy and Natural Resources	Sunyani. Bono Region
17	Garden City University College	Kumasi, Ashanti Region Region
18	Koforidua Technical University	Koforidua, Eastern Region
19	Ghana Christian University College	Amrahia-Dodowa, Greater Accra Region
20	Catholic University College of Ghana	Fiapre-Sunyani, Brono Region
21	Regional Maritime University	Nungua, Accra
22	Presbyterian University College	Abetifi, Kwahu, Eastern Region
23	Accra Technical University	Accra Central, Accra
24	University of Professional Studies – Accra	Madina, Accra
25	Methodist University College Ghana	Tema, Greater Accra Region
26	African University College of Communications	Adabraka, Accra
27	Pentecost University College	Sowutuom, Accra
28	Takoradi Technical University	Takoradi, Western Region
29	Webster University Ghana	Kotobabi, Accra
30	Ghana Institute of Journalism	North Ridge, Accra
31	Accra Institute of Technology	Accra Newtown, Accra
32	Sunyani Technical University	Sunyani, Bono Region
33	Lancaster University Ghana	East Legon, Accra
34	Christian Service University College	Kumasi, Ashanti Region
35	BlueCrest College	Kokomlemle, Accra
36	Wisconsin International University College Ghana	North Legon, Accra
37	Islamic University College Ghana	Trasacco, Accra
38	Cape Coast Technical University	Cape Coast, Central Region
39	Ghana Institute of Languages	Accra Central, Accra
40	Ghana Baptist University College	Kumasi, Ashanti Region
41	National Film and Television Institute	Cantonments, Accra
42	Radford University College	East Legon, Accra
43	Data Link Institute	Tema, Greater Accra Region
44	University College of Management Studies	SCC, Accra
45	Knutsford University College	East Legon, Accra
46	Dominion University College	Spintex Rd, Accra
47	Bolgatanga Polytechnic	Bolgatanga, Upper East Region
48	Laweh Open University Ghana	Nungua, Accra
49	Evangelical Presbyterian University College	Ho, Volta Region
50	Anglican University College of Technology – Angutech	Nkoranza, Bono East Region
51	Academic City University College	Haatso, Accra
52	Zenith University College	La, Accra
53	West End University College	Ga South, Accra
54	Kings University College	Weija, Accra
55	Ghana Communication Technology University GCTU	Abeka, Accra
56	Tamale Technical University	Tamale, Northern Region
57	Mountcrest University College	Kanda, Accra
58	Christ Apostolic University College	Kumasi, Ashanti Region
59	KAAF University College	Buduburam, Kasoa, Central Region
60	Kessben University College	Kuntanase, Kumasi, Ashanti Region
61	University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies	Bunso, Eastern Region
62	Jayee University College	McCarthy Hill, Accra
63	Wa Polytechnic	Wa, Upper West Region
64	Catholic Institute of Business and Technology	Adabraka, Accra
65	Marshalls University	Odorkor, Accra
66	Spiritan University College	Ejisu, Ashanti Region
67	Akrofi Christaller Institute of Theology Mission and Culture	Akropong, Eastern Region
68	Perez University College – Pan African Christian University College	Winneba, Central Region

Source: webometric

Objectives of the Rankings

The main objective of the rankings is to promote web publication. it seeks to support open access to initiatives, electronic access to scientific publications, and other academic materials. So mainly, these objectives guided the ranking of Ghana’s best universities based on global performance and visibility.

The idea is that a university’s activities and impact can be measured by the quality and extent of its web presence.

Using the Rankings

Candidates who desire to use these rankings in choosing a university should know that this list correlates well with the quality of education provided by the university in question, and the academic prestige it offers. But other non-academic considerations may have to be made as well.

Who compiled the rankings?

The world universities rankings are compiled by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) – a public organization devoted to scientific and technical research that is universally recognized as one of the top R&D European institutions. Contrary to other ranking editors, the CSIC is a non-profit institution, without any commercial links.

CSIC is among the first basic research organizations in Europe. The CSIC consisted in 2006 of 126 centres and institutes distributed throughout Spain.

How reliable are these rankings?

The best universities in Ghana ranking correlates highly with other rankings, especially those based on research results. It has a far larger coverage as it ranks more than 20 000 universities worldwide and also it takes into consideration more university missions (not only research).

What about academics?

You may be concerned that academic performance may not be equal to research performance, and this is true, especially for research-intensive universities – probably not more than a few hundred ones worldwide. This is unfair with many other universities, with a limited emphasis on research activities, such as the open universities or those focused on business, technology, or languages that traditionally attract a lot of foreign students.

For these universities in Ghana ranking, the research results are also very important. A number of publications of the open citation bibliographic database – Google Scholar – that has good coverage of academic institutional repositories worldwide.

Can the rankings be faulty, and why is my university’s ranked so low?

1. University Category:

CSIC ranking is the largest ranking by the number of HEIs analyzed, but there is no classification of the different institutional types, so research-intensive universities are listed together with community colleges or theological seminaries. However, the rank segregates all of them so it is not difficult to build sub-rankings for those interested.

2. University missions:

The direct measurement of teaching mission is virtually unfeasible and those evaluations are based on surveys (subjective), ratios of students/scholars (data unreliable and results not segregating), or employment results (with many variables involved other than the quality of teaching) should be avoided. CSIC’s ranking ranks indirectly this mission using web presence as an indicator of the commitment of the scholars with their students. It is not perfect but the future of this mission is clearly in the web arena and any institution or individual not realizing that is losing ground very fast.

3. Big numbers.

The quality of the data does not only depend on the source used, but also on the numbers involved. For example, the number of universities with more than one Nobel Prize is probably lower than 200 (including all of those granted since 1900) that makes it very difficult to rank them correctly.

The same applies to citation data, the most powerful bibliometric tool that is providing figures in the order of thousands and tens of thousands. The link data offer far larger big numbers, usually two or even three orders of magnitude larger. Certainly, the web indicators are noisier but statistically, they are better suited for uncovering patterns and discriminating a larger number of institutions.

4. Size-dependent.

There is no debate about this issue: The most popular rankings, including this one, are size-dependent, although size does not refer to a number of scholars or students (like GIMPA and NAFTI are not large in that sense) but probably to resources (current funding, past funding reflected in buildings, laboratories or libraries). But this criticism is not correct as really none of the rankings are really measuring efficiency but global performance.

5. Bad naming practices

University managers are still fighting for convincing their authors to assign the correct affiliations in scientific publications. The situation is not far better on the Web with several hundred institutions having more than one central web domain, preserving active old domains, using alternative domains for international (English) contents, or sharing domains with third parties. Even among those universities with only one domain, many of them change the domain frequently, sometimes without any apparent good reason for doing that.

A strange relatively common situation is when those changes are for transferring a national top-level domain to a “.edu” domain, even when though Ghana has a clearly defined academic subdomain (edu.gh). These changes and, especially the preservation along the time of several domains, penalizes very severely in university ranking. But of course, it is also a very misleading practice that decreases the web visibility of the universities. Probably it has not so strong an effect on local populations, but it is really confusing for the global audiences.

6. Fake and non-accredited universities.

The list tries not to include fake institutions, checking especially online, international, and foreign branches if they have independent web domain or subdomain.

Do you think your university deserves a better ranking on this list? Or do think any of these institutions does not deserve its ranking? Why do you think any university should or should not be on this list? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below

Cheers from the Yellgh Team