South Africa dominates sub-Saharan Africa university rankings
South Africa's universities have emerged as leaders in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa, with four universities ranking in the top 10 of the latest Times Higher Education Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) University Rankings.
For the first time, the University of Johannesburg claimed the top spot, overtaking the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), which dropped to third place.
The University of Pretoria secured second place, contributing to the country taking all three top slots. The University of Johannesburg also achieved the highest overall score in the region, surpassing 80 points—the only university to do so.
South African universities collectively scored an average of 65 out of 100, the highest among countries with at least 10 ranked institutions, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Somalia.
The SSA University Rankings evaluate universities on teaching, research, and societal impact, grouped into five categories: Resources and Finance, Access and Fairness, Student Engagement, Ethical Leadership (a newly introduced metric), and Africa Impact.
Now in its second year, the methodology has been refined to improve comparability between institutions.
Nigeria has the most universities in the rankings, with 41 schools and an average score of 51. Out of these, 13 made it into the top 50, with the American University of Nigeria ranked highest at 12th place.
