Lubango – The Mandume Ya Ndemofayo University (UMN) joins, for the first time, the ranking of the 200 most quoted and popular higher education institutions in Africa, being the best positioned among the five Angolan on the list.
Founded in 2009, the UMN has its headquarter in the southern city of Lubango (Huila) and covers the provinces of Huíla and Cunene.
It ranks 16th in the study published this week by UniRank, a Nigerian institution that has been working on gender assessments since 1960. The ranking is led by the University of Cape Town (South Africa).
With five faculties, namely Economics, Medicine, Law, Huíla and Ondjiva's higher Polytechnic Institute, UMN enrolled 9,000 students this year in its 19 undergraduate courses, one post graduate and two masters.
Initially, it covered the provinces of Huíla, Namibe, Cunene and Cuando Cubango, but since 2019, it has only joined, by Presidential Decree, Huíla and Cunene.
Up to now, the university has graduated more than four thousand cadres, 81 masters and over 90 postgraduates in pedagogical aggregation.
Regarding the year 2021, the aforementioned ranking includes four other Angolan universities, namely the Independent University of Angola (UNIA) in 30th place, Agostinho Neto (UAN) in 39th, Technical University of Angola (UTANGA) 101st and Angolan Catholic University (UCAN) in the 178th rank.
On the UniRank page (https://www.4icu.org/top-universities-africa/), regarding the question which were the most popular universities in Africa, the institution writes that it tries to answer the matter by publishing the African University Ranking, with the 200 best recognized higher education institutions in 2021.
Among the criteria taken into account, UniRank points to the accreditation of universities by government entities that manage higher education, the availability of at least four years of graduation or post-graduation, the offer of courses predominantly in a traditional face-to-face manner and not from a distance.
The institution explains that its aim is to provide a non-academic Table of Africa's top universities, based on valid, impartial, and unbiased web valuations, provided by independent web intelligence sources, rather than data submitted by the universities about themselves.
In the ranking, the top seven are South African universities. The last place (200th place) is the University of Lomé, in Togo.
UniRank (University Overview) was founded in 1960 and is part of the University of Nigeria, a public institution of higher education located in Nsukka, Enugu State.
