THE BIG UWI RANKING PUZZLE

THE multi-campus University of the West Indies is not named among the world’s top 1,497 tertiary institutions, in a just-released study.

But the management of UWI had earlier boasted of being ranked among the best in the world, according to another report.

This raises the question of where the taxpayer-funded university really fits in global ratings.

UWI has claimed to be been listed in Times Higher Education (THE) rankings among the world’s top 600 universities and the leading 40 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Further, the university said it is in the leading 100 Golden Age University rankings.

“The UWI remains the only Caribbean university to make these prestigious lists,” the institution said at that time.

The management termed UWI “an activist university,” involved in “innovation and entrepreneurship,” and striving for “one Caribbean solution.”

The university bragged about other activities and about its “record of producing leaders in the region and the wider world.”

But the reputable QS World University Rankings, in its latest report, did not list UWI in its top global 1,497 institutions.

In fact, no Caribbean universities made the list even though there were 85 new entrants from various parts of the world in the annual study.

American and European universities dominate the list, but an institution from Singapore made history by being in the top 10.

Universities from Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Chile, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan are in the QS rankings.

The ratings are based on an array of specific measures, including international research collaboration to solve the world’s biggest challenges.

UWI’s high placement on one list and absence of ranking on another is an unsolved puzzle for the regional academic community and the citizens who fund the university.