Makerere University has contested the accuracy of a Daily Monitor report that claimed that the university had fallen in global rankings and lost its place among Africa’s top universities.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the university’s vice chancellor, Barnabas Nawangwe, cited rankings — the Center for World University Rankings and EduRank — that placed Makerere 13th and 7th in Africa, adding that it remained “Uganda’s leading university”.
Mr Nawangwe also said that the university had received clarification on one of the rankings referred to by the Daily Monitor, which the university’s account on X (formerly known as Twitter) tweeted.
The Monitor’s report, published on Monday, said that Makerere “has been ranked 41st in Africa, tying with 31 other universities on the continent”. The report added that Times Higher Education had “also bundled Makerere between positions 1,201 and 1,500 globally in 2025.”
In correspondence released by Makerere, a Times Higher Education World University Rankings official said: “The number 41 position stated in the article is inaccurate. Institutions within each band are listed alphabetically, not based on score.”
The letter was in response to a “request for clarification regarding Makerere University’s ranking”. It said that the newspaper had relied on data released in October last year, and had “conflated the World University Rankings 2025 and Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings when comparing Makerere University’s performance over time”.
The Monitor story said Makerere was ranked 5th in sub-Saharan Africa by Times Higher Education in 2023, but fell to 8th in 2024. It also cited the Centre for University Rankings, “a UAE-based institution that also ranks universities globally, [which] has placed Makerere at 13 in Africa and 912 out of 21,462 universities globally.”
It added: “Educationists and other officials say Makerere’s fall from among top 10 universities in Africa has capped years of mismanagement, and repression of freedom of expression at the university.”
The report further claimed: “Explaining the decline in ranking and quality of services at the university, scholars and academicians attributed it to maladministration that has gripped the ivory tower in the last decade. Critics say the university has become more autocratic, passing draconian policies that deny an avenue for dialogue in resolving some of the malfunctions at the university.”
The Monitor also cited anonymous sources at the university who said “both academic and non-academic staff operate under fear and cannot freely express themselves, which has translated into poor quality,” and that the institution is “no longer competitive and is hugely mismanaged.”
While the university addressed the issue of lower rankings, it remained silent on accusations of mismanagement and autocracy. Mr Nawangwe, whom critics blame for the authoritarian shift and its chilling effect since he took over in 2017, did not address these accusations in his response.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, as well as the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and the QS World University Rankings are widely considered to be the most influential and authoritative global university rankings.
