Mount Kenya University (MKU) and Strathmore University are the only private institutions of higher education ranked among the top ten in the country.

In the latest performance assessment report by Webometrics, the University of Nairobi has retained the top slot in Kenya with eight public universities dominating the list.

Others include Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenyatta University (KU), Egerton, Moi, Maseno, Technical University of Nairobi (TUK) and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST).

Strathmore and MKU are ranked in position seven and ten, respectively in the Webometrics report released last week.

Top performing

In the global arena this year, MKU was also ranked as a top-performing institution of higher learning by UNIRANK and EDURANK after improving 19 per cent from position 6,318 to 5,437 out of 32,140 institutions in the world ranking.

In Africa, the institution has been listed at position 258 out of more than 2,000 universities. It also improved from position 16 to 10 out of 124 institutions in the Kenyan ranking.

In the sub-Saharan category, MKU jumped from position 177 to 151 among the 1,393 colleges in the survey by Webometrics.

The MKU Medical School is also ranked as the leading training institution among medical schools in East Africa, according to EAC Partner States Medical Practitioners Boards and Councils. “The ranking is a true reflection of the efforts that the university has put towards enhancing, teaching and learning, research and innovations,” says Prof Deogratius Jaganyi, MKU Vice-Chancellor.

He added that the university organised a research and innovation week last year where staff disseminated their research findings.

Congratulating the institution’s leadership, management, faculty and entire fraternity on the morale-boosting achievements, Prof Jaganyi said the ratings have improved due to the growth in the number of external networks (subnets) linking to the institution’s webpages. “On this index, the college improved from position eight to three due to increased partnerships and linkages,” he maintained.

He added that MKU has also gained mileage on the transparency and openness ranking due the presences of top cited researchers and increasing citations.