The University of Nairobi (UoN) has emerged among the top 6.8 percent of institutions in a 2020 World ranking report by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR).
In its 2020-2021 listing by the Centre that publishes the largest academic rankings of global universities, UoN was ranked position 1,357 out of 20,000 institutions.
This year, the University of Nairobi led in Kenya with an overall score of 68.4 under the criteria for Quality of Education, Alumni Employment and Quality of faculty. The research performance rank was 1,294.
In 2019, the University of Nairobi was ranked position 144 with an overall score of 68.9 indicating a drop of 133 positions.
Universities based in the United States of America dominated the top 10 ranking clinching eight spots with the top three institutions being Harvard University (USA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) and Stanford University (USA).
The University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.
The rankings are unique in that: Objective indicators are used for all four key pillars underlying the methodology of the ranking (quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, and research performance) with no reliance on surveys and university data submissions.
Equal emphasis is put on the learning environment and research as the CWUP uses seven objective and robust indicators to rank the world's universities.
Among the indicators are the quality of education, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won major academic distinctions relative to the university's size (25%): Alumni employment, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held top executive positions at the world's largest companies relative to the university's size (25%): Quality of faculty, measured by the number of faculty members who have won major academic distinctions (10%).
The other criteria includes; Research performance: Research output, measured by the total number of research articles (10%): High-quality publications, measured by the number of research articles appearing in top-tier journals (10%): Influence, measured by the number of research articles appearing in highly-influential journals (10%) and Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research articles (10%).
The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) is a leading consulting organization providing policy advice, strategic insights, and consulting services to governments and universities to improve educational and research outcomes.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, UoN has strived to ensure learning proceeds without major disruptions. In May 2020, the institution became the first public university to conduct virtual examinations.
On June 5, 2020, Prof. Stephen Kiama Gitahi took his oath of office as the 8th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi.
