Quarter of top 200 Times Ranking universities led by Women

10 / 03 / 2023

By Marwa Nassar - -

About a quarter of the top 200 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings are led by women.

The University of Cape Town – under Mamokgethi Phakeng – is the sole African institution among the 48 universities run by women.

Analysis of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 reveals that 48 of the top 200 institutions are currently led by women.

This is an increase from the 43 universities led by women last year and now amounts to a quarter of the top 200 universities in the world.

This is thanks to recent appointments in the US and Germany. By the middle of 2023, four out of the world’s top five universities will be led by women.

The current number one institution (the University of Oxford) is led by Irene Tracey, who took over from Louise Richardson in January 2023.

Three of the prestigious Ivy League institutions in the US; the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and Brown University, have female leaders.

The Netherlands, US, Germany and the UK are some of the countries with high numbers of female-led institutions.