The University of Cape Coast community, including students and alumni, have expressed excitement over its achievement in the recently released Times Higher Education Rankings.

The University was ranked the number one university in Ghana, the top university in West Africa, and among the top five universities on the African Continent by the Times Higher Education.

It was also ranked among top universities in the world in terms of field weighted citation impact (research influence) of scholarly research outputs.

The annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings is the most prestigious global ranking.

It aims at providing the definitive list of the best universities (1,622 institutions in 99 countries in 2021), evaluated across five key areas of Teaching, Research, Citations, International Outlook and Industry Income.

The 2022 World University Rankings include more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

Reacting to the achievement, members of the university community said the feat confirmed the tag of the institution as the “University of competitive Choice”.

“This is good news and we feel proud about it. And the difference is that UCC lecturers are publishing in high and quality journals,” Dr Sabina Appiah-Boateng, a Research Fellow at the School for Development Studies, said.

“The hard work put in by the University has not been in vain after all.”

Mr Richard Ametefe, also at the School of Development Studies, said: “It gives a good feeling being part of the academic staff at this time that this feat has been achieved.”

“This is what our UCC anthem stands for. We are the first in the nation and now witnessed in the world,” Mavis Naa Ennin, an alumnus, boasted.

However, many others have also implored the University Management not to relent on the feat but maintain the standards and forge ahead to achieve more.