The state of science in Africa
According to Webometrics, Africa has around 2,046 Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). That counting of Webometrics relies on web presence and therefore misses some institutes but it also contains redundancies as some of the institutes of large universities are counted as an independent HEI. UniRank lists 1,174 African HEIs, therefore, the numbers may not be entirely correct.
The chart above, based on Webometrics, is probably the best indicator of the state of science in Africa. The ranking is based on the website of the HEI and the quantity and quality of the scientific publications of members of the institutes.
But what do these numbers mean?
First, though Nigeria has by far the largest number of HEIs, it is not in the top 10 in terms of HEIs per capita. If we exclude smaller countries, such as Seychelles, countries such as Tunisia, Somalia, Morocco and Ghana probably offer more opportunities to their citizens in terms of attending tertiary education.
Second, quality HEIs (based on Webometrics’s measure of quality) are concentrated in a few countries. South Africa has the top 4 universities. Out of the top 10 African universities, 8 are located in South Africa. The top 11 universities are from South Africa and Egypt. Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Ghana and Uganda have each one university in the top 20. Though Nigeria has by far the most universities, its best university, the University of Ibadan, ranks 19th.
Third, even those countries that have a large number of HEIs, such as Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have fewer HEIs in relation to their population size. This may imply that they probably offer less opportunity to their citizens to attend tertiary education.
Fourth, there are countries that do not have universities, or have universities but are not known to the outside world. Eritrea, which used to have Asmara university — one of the best universities in Ethiopia when Eritrea was part of Ethiopia — doesn’t have a university anymore. This situation is probably unique in the world where a nation decided to do away with its only and best university.
Finally, the quality measure of Webometrics — and all other quality measures, all of which originate from advanced countries — may not be applicable to the African situation. The quality and quantity of scientific publications by researchers and students of the HEIs are important measures of quality. However, publications in local journals and research on local African issues do not score well in terms of scientific quality.
There may be African universities that are impactful locally but perform poorly in terms of international scientific publication. There may be HEIs that are impactful but remain invisible to the external world because they do not have a proper web presence. However, our world is globally interconnected. African HEIs must make their local issues a global research agenda so that they can utilize the global scientific resources. That requires them to be visible and share their findings with the global scientific community. The state of science in Africa can improve only when African HEIs give attention to global trends and quality standards and link themselves with the global scientific community.
