Quacquarelli Symonds has released the 2025 edition of the QS World University Rankings, which is the largest edition to date, featuring 1,503 institutions across 106 locations. This year’s rankings evaluated 5,663 institutions, including 21 new entries, and uniquely emphasize employability and sustainability factors.

African universities have made a significant impact in the rankings, with 40 universities from 10 countries making the list, and 21 of them securing spots in the top 1,000. South Africa leads the continent’s representation, with the University of Cape Town topping the African list at 171st globally, improving its position by two places from the previous year. It is followed by the University of Witwatersrand at 267th, Stellenbosch University at 296th, and the University of Johannesburg at 312th.

Other notable African institutions include Cairo University in Egypt at 350th, the University of Pretoria in South Africa at 354th, the American University in Cairo at 410th, the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa at 587th, Ain Shams University in Egypt at 592nd, and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, which ranked in the 771–780 band.

Egypt has the most universities represented from Africa with 15, followed by South Africa with 11. Tunisia has four universities listed, while Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana each have two. Morocco, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan each have one university represented.

The 2025 rankings assessed institutions across nine indicators: citations per faculty, academic reputation, employment outcomes, faculty-student ratio, international-student ratio, international research network, international faculty ratio, employer reputation, and sustainability. South African universities excelled particularly in the sustainability and international research collaboration indicators, with over half showing improvement in these areas. The University of Witwatersrand and Makerere University in Uganda achieved the highest scores in Africa for employment outcomes.

Globally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA maintained its first-place position for the thirteenth consecutive year. Imperial College London and the University of Oxford in the UK secured the second and third positions, respectively.

While the rankings underscore the significant strides African universities have made in enhancing their research footprint, they also highlight ongoing challenges in providing adequate teaching capacity and research infrastructure across the continent’s higher education sector. As African institutions continue to climb the global rankings, their efforts in sustainability and employability set a promising foundation for future growth and development in higher education.

 

Article by Jed Mwangi

Photo/Google

https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings?region=Africa&sort_by=rank&order_by=asc