THERE will likely be no consensus among higher learning institutions in Tanzania and elsewhere as well as in various other quarters over the recently unveiled global university rankings.

These have placed the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the country’s flagship academic institution, at No. 32 in Africa – the only Tanzanian university among the continent’s top 50.

Online entries show that the rankings are conducted by a specialised promotional survey group passed in the New South Wales province in Australia, which describes its activities as constituting an international higher education portal and search engine. It features reviews and rankings of over 14,000 universities and colleges.

There is a difference between someone seeking to roll out a ranking designed to make it a leading international higher education directory and search engine for 10,000-plus institutions of higher learning as well as a scientific study in a strict sense of the term.

A clear problem is that if one wanted a scientific study of what universities are indeed the best, a subjective aspect comes up regarding whether it is liberal or conservative universities which will impress in their academic outputs.

The ranking at hand is more outward looking – on students from other countries or the perceptibility of employable graduates, themes often addressed.

For a search engine on higher learning featuring reviews and rankings of over 13,900 officially recognized universities or colleges, it isn’t a reference one can afford to put aside for any reason, even if its ranking has specific limitations.

The brand owner’s profile says that it is not an academic ranking and therefore should not be adopted as the main criterion for selecting a higher education organisation where to enrol and study.

When it comes to the brand issues of ranking methodology transparency and the ability of testing and reproducing the result so obtained, there are few areas to complain about with respect to the ranking.

The brand owner says it is conducted as suggested by the Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions – well, a topic of its own – and is decidedly less stringent than for academic university rankings.

The latter isn’t a minus as it leaves out ideological or conceptual controversies about the world and human society as would be handled by any university.

In the Tanzanian context, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) followed at a distant slot No. 96 in Africa, while it is possible the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) would have done better on a more specialised reference listing, on its specialised units.

But generalised as a university and looking at the influence or otherwise of its generalists or other outputs, it is entirely possible it would not make it to the top 100 African universities listing.

It evident that the ranking reflects what we know of our universities, though it only touches on upper levels, this supposedly helping to sober up local reviewers talking of excellence.

Arguably the more crucial issue, as one reviewer argued, is what limits Tanzania’s standing on the global academic stage, or at least on the continent, as within the East African Community (EAC) zone Tanzania trails its peers.

Makerere University – in the Ugandan capital, Kampala – is placed at slot No. 12 in Africa, while Kenya’s University of Nairobi stands at slot No. 24 meanwhile as the University of Rwanda in Kigali also appears in the top 100.

One could rate this ranking as much similar to currency ranking, arguing that socioeconomic turmoil shakes up institutions, but with some managing to guard their traditions.