The scientific exercise is performed by the Cyber Metrics Lab (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) with the intention of producing updated and useful information about the performance of universities from all over the world based on their web presence and impact.
Since 2004, the Webometrics Ranking is published twice a year (data is collected during the first weeks of January and July for being public at the end of both months), covering more than 28,000 higher education institutions worldwide.
Top on the African ranking is the University of Cape Town followed by University of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch University, the University of Pretoria all from South Africa and Cairo University from Egypt in the fifth position.
The University of Kwazulu Natal follows in 6th position, 7th is the University of Johannesburg and the University of South Africa in 8th position. The best in the East African region is the University of Nairobi at number 10.
“We intend to motivate institutions and scholars to have a web presence that reflects their activities accurately. If the web performance of an institution is below the expected position according to their academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policy, promoting substantial increases of the volume and quality of their electronic publications,” said authors of the latest raking.
Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) is ranked 50th, while Kyambogo University stands at 176th position and Gulu University at 184th position.
Kampala International University (KIU) ranks number 217th on the continent, Uganda Martyrs University at 271, Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) at 275 and Uganda Christian University (UCU) at 287th.
Makerere was at one time in the top 3 ranked universities in Africa.
