From Cape Town to Cairo, some African universities provide excellent education, conduct world-leading research and contribute meaningfully to local and global challenges.
However, the full potential of many institutions remains constrained by governance weaknesses, uneven management capacity, limited resources and infrastructure, restrictive institutional cultures, and difficulties in attracting and retaining sufficient numbers of high-calibre academics and students.
Against this background, the increasing tendency of some universities to describe themselves as research-intensive warrants scrutiny.
The concern is not that institutions should lack ambition, but that institutional claims should be supported by credible evidence.
When aspiration is presented as achievement, universities risk weakening public trust and exposure to reputational criticism.
A research-intensive university may be understood as an institution that occupies a recognised position at the leading edge of knowledge production.
This status is reflected not only in rankings and research volume, but also in the quality, influence, sustainability and societal value of its scholarly work. Several interrelated characteristics are central to such an institutional profile.
First, it produces research of consistently high quality, rather than relying primarily on the quantity of outputs.
Such research is original, advances knowledge, and demonstrates intellectual, social, economic or cultural significance.
Second, it has a strong academic workforce, including a substantial proportion of staff with doctoral qualifications and researchers whose expertise, experience and scholarly contributions are recognised beyond their own institutions.
Third, it is able to attract and retain leading scholars, including visiting professors and research collaborators, who make substantive contributions to teaching, supervision, research and institutional development.
Fourth, it develops strategic international and regional partnerships that are equitable, mutually beneficial and aligned with both academic priorities and broader societal needs.
Fifth, it enrols a meaningful proportion of students in competitive master’s and doctoral programmes, while maintaining strong supervision systems, appropriate funding support and credible completion rates.
Sixth, it cultivates a sustainable pipeline of early-career researchers, including postdoctoral fellows and emerging scholars with the potential to make significant contributions to their fields.
Seventh, it provides an enabling academic environment in which students, researchers and professional staff have the conditions necessary to develop their capabilities, succeed and contribute meaningfully to society.
In addition, research intensity depends on the sustained mobilisation of resources for research, innovation, scholarships, partnerships, infrastructure, laboratories, libraries, digital systems and equipment.
Leadership is also significant. Universities that aspire to research intensity require leaders who value ideas, protect academic independence, encourage rigorous debate and exercise administrative authority with judgement and accountability.
Finally, genuine research intensity requires appropriate governance and management arrangements.
This includes effective councils and committees, streamlined decision-making structures, and the appointment of independent and accomplished individuals who understand the purposes and requirements of research, innovation and higher education.
Africa needs universities that build research intensity through evidence, investment, academic quality and institutional reform. Declaring such status may express aspiration, but it does not by itself establish achievement.
* The author of this article is Professor Tawana Kupe, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Pretoria and Vice Principal of Wits University in South Africa. The views expressed by Professor Tawana Kupe are not necessarily those of The Bulrushes
