Education activist Dr Steve Sharra says investment in major research is critical on the performance of any university.

Dr Sharra, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) made the sentiments when commenting on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018 list of top 1000 universities in the world.

He told YFM online that it is not surprising that the country’s universities are missing on the list since there aren’t much resources channeled towards research and other publications.

“These rankings are dependent upon many factors,”partnerships with other Universities, enrollment, publications, research to mention a few. Our Universities are very small and have inadequate resources to carter for research which is one of the key performance indicators,”said Sharra.

The activist however believes that the approach which the country’s President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika suggested that the country adopts, of coming up with a levy would to assist the Universities in carrying out research.

“It’s been two years since the country’s President made the call but we haven’t heard about the progress of that agenda. If we dont do something about it we will continue to be invisible on these rankings,” he added.

Top on the list is Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) seconded by Stanford University with Harvard University in third place.