More on Alternative Indicators for Ranking African Universities

Continuing with our exploration of how to rank universities outside the world's top 200 or 400 where it is necessary to develop robust and sophisticated techniques of standardisation, normalisation, scaling, regional modification, taking away the number you first thought of (just kidding) verification, weighting and validation to figure out that Caltech's  normalised research impact is slightly better than Harvard's or that Cambridge is a bit more international than that place in the other Cambridge, here is a ranking of African universities according to recommendations in LinkedIn.

There are obvious problems with this indicator, not least of which is the tiny number of responses compared to all the students on the continent. It might, however, be the precursor to a useful survey of student opinion or graduate employability later on.

First place goes to the University of South Africa, an open distance education institution whose alumni include Nelson Mandela, Cyril Ramaphosa and Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Makerere University, the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University do well.

Data was compiled on the 28th and 29th of July. All universities included in the THE experimental African ranking, the top fifty African universities in Webometrics plus the top universities in Webometrics or 4icu of any country still nor included.

Rank	University	Country	Number of LinkedIn Recommendations
1	University of South Africa	South Africa	154
2	Makerere University	Uganda	116
3	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa	94
4	University of Ibadan	Nigeria	86
5	University of Johannesburg	South Africa	79
6	University of Nairobi	Kenya	75
7	Cairo University	Egypt	67
8	Stellenbosch University	South Africa	63
9	University of Pretoria	South Africa	62
10	Kenyatta University	Kenya	61
11	University of Cape Town	South Africa	60
12	University of Lagos	Nigeria	58
13	Addis Ababa University	Ethiopia	55
14	Obafemi Awolowo University	Nigeria	50
15	Alexandria University	Egypt	47
16	Rhodes University	South Africa	42
17	Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology	Kenya	40
18	American University in Cairo	Egypt	28
19	University of Kwazulu-Natal	South Africa	26
20	University of Ilorin	Nigeria	24
21	University of Zimbabwe	Zimbabwe	22
22	Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology	Ghana	21
23	Helwan University	Egypt	20
24=	North West University	South Africa	18
24=	University of Ghana	Ghana	18
24=	University of Port Harcourt	Nigeria	18
27=	Durban University of Technology	South Africa	16
27=	University of Dar Es Salaam	Tanzania	16
29=	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University	South Africa	14
29=	University of the Western Cape	South Africa	14
31	Cape Peninsula University of Technology	South Africa	13
32	Mansoura university	Egypt	12
33	University of Botswana	Botswana	10
34	Covenant University	Nigeria	9
35=	Zagazig University	Egypt	7
35=	Suez Canal university	Egypt	7
37	Tanta University	Egypt	6
38=	Assiut University	Egypt	5
38=	Université Constantine 1	Algeria	5
40=	University of the Free State	South Africa	4
40=	Universite des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene	Algeria	4
42+	South Valley University	Egypt	3
42+	Université Cadi Ayyad	Morocco	2
42+	University ofTunis	Tunisia	2
42+	University of Namibia	Namibia	1
42+	University of Mauritius	Mauritius	1
42+	Université Cheikh Anta Diop	Senegal	0
42+	Université Mohammed V Souissi	Morocco	0
42+	University of Khartoum	Sudan	0
42+	University of Malawi	Malawi	0
42+	Université Hassan II Ain Chock	Morocco	0
42+	Kafrelsheikh University	Egypt	0
42+	University of Zambia	Zambia	0
42+	Bejaia university	Algeria	0
42+	Minia University	Egypt	0
42+	Benha University	Egypt	0
42+	Universidade Católica de Angola	Angola	0
42+	Université de Lomé	Togo	0
42+	Université Abou Bekr Belkaid	Algeria	0
42+	Beni-Suef University	Egypt	0
42+	Université Omar Bongo	Gabon	0
42+	University of the Gambia	Gambia	0
42+	Université de Toliara	Madagascar	0
42+	Université Kasdi Merbah Ouarg	Algeria	0
42+	Universite de la Reunion	Reunion	0
42+	Université d'Abomey-Calavi	Benin	0
42+	Universidade Eduardo Mondlane	Mozambique	0
42+	Université de Ouagadougou	Burkina Faso	0
42+	University of Rwanda	Rwanda	0
42+	Universite de Bamako	Mali	0
42+	University of Swaziland	Swaziland	0
42+	Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny	Ivory Coast	0
42+	Université de Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of the Congo	0
42+	National University of Lesotho	Lesotho	0
42+	Universidade Jean Piaget de Cabo Verde	Cape Verde	0
42+	N Engineering S of Sfax	Tunisia	0
42+	Université Marien Ngouabi	Republic of the Congo	0
42+	University of Liberia	Liberia	0
42+	Université Djillali Liabes	Algeria	0
42+	Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey	Niger	0
42+	Misurata University	Libya	0
42+	Université de Dschang	Cameroons	0
42+	Université de Bangui	Central African Republic	0
42+	Université de Nouakchott	Mauritania	0
42+	Eritrea Institute of Technology	Eritrea	0
42+	Université de Djibouti	Djibouti	0
42+	University of Seychelles	Seychelles	0
42+	Mogadishu University	Somalia	0
42+	Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial	Equatorial Guinea	0
42+	Universite Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry	Guinea	0
42+	University of Makeni	Sierra Leone	0
42+	John Garang Memorial University	South Sudan	0
42+	Hope Africa University	Burundi	0
42+	Universite de Moundou	Chad	0
42+	Universite de Yaounde I	Cameroons	0