As the year comes to an end, Times Higher Education has published its yearly list of the top universities in Sub-Saharan Africa, from among all the countries below the Sahara desert. Like most years, South Africa continues to dominate the list with the top three universities in the region.
Times Higher Education is a British publication, reporting on news and issues relating to higher education since 1971. It claims it offers “the world’s most comprehensive university rankings.”
There are some surprises in this year’s list, like a health science university in Rwanda making it to the top five, alongside one of Ghana’s top institutions.
One big question among these top universities in Sub-Saharan Africa is the glossing over of the University of Cape Town (UCT). Often among the top universities in South Africa and the world, UCT does not feature in the top 50 universities list this year.
However, it does feature in the top seven universities in the entire continent, sitting at number one.
But this may be down to the methodology of the SSA list. Times Higher Education says it chooses the top universities in Sub-Saharan Africa based on “five key pillars: resources and finance; access and fairness; ethical leadership; student engagement; and Africa impact.”
The “Africa impact” pillar may be the difference maker here but the methodology has undergone some differences since last year.
“After consultation with university stakeholders in SSA, we added a new pillar – ethical leadership – as well as some new metrics,” it wrote.
“We have reorganised existing metrics to fit around this new structure, and also removed some metrics.”
The 10 top universities in Sub-Saharan Africa according to Times Higher Education
- 1 – University of Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2 – University of Pretoria, South Africa
- 3 – University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
- 4 – UGHE – University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda
- 5 – University of Ghana, Ghana
- 6 – University of Rwanda, Rwanda
- 7 – SIMAD University, Somalia
- 8 – Makerere University, Uganda
- 9 – Ashesi University, Ghana
- 10 – University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
