- South Africa claims six of the top 10 universities in research output
By Sheila Nhancale
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – No Mozambican university features among Africa’s top 100 in terms of scientific output, according to the 2025 Ranking of African Universities Based on Research, released in June by African Journals, Universities and Research (AFJUR).
The study reviewed 1,474 higher education institutions across the continent, of which 1,461 were effectively ranked based on the volume of publications and academic citations on Google Scholar, covering the period from 2020 to 2024.
Cairo University in Egypt tops the continental list, followed by the University of Cape Town and the University of Pretoria, both in South Africa. The top five is completed by the University of Nairobi (Kenya) and the University of Nigeria. Among the ten leading institutions, six are South African, two Egyptian, one Nigerian and one Kenyan.
Nigeria stands out as the country with the highest number of institutions in the Top 100, with 30 universities represented, cementing its role as one of Africa’s emerging science hubs. In total, universities from only 20 African countries appear in the ranking, less than half of the continent’s 54 states.
Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the oldest and largest in Mozambique, ranks 114th. The Pedagogical University of Maputo appears at 266th place, followed by the Catholic University of Mozambique (366th), Lúrio University (522nd), and the now-defunct Higher Institute of International Relations (ISRI), which ranks 775th.
These rankings reflect the institutions’ performance in terms of academic publications and citations, based on data collected from Google Scholar covering the last five years (2020–2024).
Methodologically, the study’s authors searched for each university on Google Scholar using the institution’s name, country, and, where necessary, the city in which it is located. Despite certain limitations, the authors argue that this approach offers a practical means of assessing scientific visibility in the digital academic space.
The results point to a structural deficit in Mozambique’s science and innovation policy. Key weaknesses include limited research funding, lack of strategies to encourage academic publishing, low levels of internationalisation, and the near absence of a digital presence across many higher education institutions. (SN)
