The University of Professional Studies, Accra has retained its dominant status as one of the best three universities in Ghana for the third consecutive year in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2021.
UPSA was ranked within the 401-600th range in the world and 14th in Africa scoring high in quality education (SDG 4), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16) and partnership for the goals (SDG 17).
The ranking also highlighted the range of activities and innovative pedagogies that the UPSA embraces to promote lifelong learning opportunities for its students as well as inclusive equitable quality education.
The THE Impact Rankings are the only global performance monitor that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through carefully calibrated indicators that strike a comprehensive and balanced comparison across four broad areas, namely research, stewardship, outreach and teaching.
It attempts to document evidence of the impact that universities have upon the society, in addition to their research and teaching performance.
Featured institutions which included 1,115 universities from 94 countries and regions receive a ranking for each of the 17 SDGs and an overall ranking.
Two other Ghanaian universities − University of Ghana and Ashesi University made it to this year’s rankings which also had 66 universities from 10 countries in Africa.
The 2021 University Impact Rankings is the third edition since the introduction of the rankings in 2019. The UPSA has been recognised in all three previous rankings, reinforcing its reputation as a world-class research and teaching institution.
“UPSA’s commitment to professional values, which underpin much of its research, scholarship, quality teaching and community engagement and has earned the university the global status in the latest rankings,” says Prof Charles Barnor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of UPSA.
“In the area of research, our faculty are rated very highly and research output has increased in the past five years. The appetite for research has also increased, and now, we are engaged in research projects that have real-world validity in solving societal issues.
“The quality of education comes from the philosophy underpinning the programmes that we design. We have improved on the philosophy, the programme design itself, content and structure of the courses within the various programmes as well as the deliverables.
“Management also strives to support the students with the right environment to experience and enjoy lifelong learning.”
