Eight African Nations Represented in Latest Global University Rankings

The twelfth edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, compiled by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, provides an independent comparative analysis of the performance of 15,200 individual university programs, taken by students at 1543 universities in 88 locations across the world, across 51 academic disciplines and five broad faculty areas.

They are part of the annual QS World University Rankings portfolio, which was consulted over 147 million times on TopUniversities.com in 2021 and covered 96,000 times by media and institutions. (Methodology)

This edition features 225 African university departments across 45 of the 51 ranked disciplines, found in eight countries. QS finds that compared to the previous edition of the rankings:

107 are unchanged
64 drop
29 rise
25 are new entries

The table below illustrates the African universities representation by country and by rank level.

The South African higher education system remains the continental leader accounting for 55% of all the African university departments ranked. It is also the only regional country to achieve one top-10 rank position with the University of Cape Town, placing ninth globally in Development Studies (up one place), and one top-20 position,
with the University of Witwatersrand placing 15^th globally in Engineering - Mineral & Mining, and a total of four
top-50 positions, thanks to the University of Witwatersrand which ranks 22^nd globally in Development Studies
(up five places), and the University of Pretoria which ranks 33^rd globally in Engineering - Mineral & Mining (up 15 places).

Uganda is the only other African country to feature among the top-50, with Makerere University placing 39^th globally in Development Studies (up six places).

The South African universities ranked, are also the most prolific of the continent for the average number of rank positions achieved in this edition: 12.4.

Egypt is the second-best performing higher education system in the region, accounting for 37% of all the African university departments ranked. It takes eight top-100 spots and 23 top-200. On average its ranked universities, saw 6.5 of their departments to be recognised among the world’s best.

Kenya is the third African country to achieve a place among the world’s top 100, with the University of Nairobi debuting in Development Studies (51-100). Its other two entries are in Agriculture & Forestry (301-350, unchanged year on year), and in Medicine (451-500, up one band).

Nigeria doubles its representation in the rankings thanks to two new entries: University of Ibadan which ranks in the 150-160 band in Petroleum Engineering, and the University of Lagos, debuting in the Medicine table (601-650). The University of Ibadan also features in Medicine (351-400) and in Agriculture & Forestry (401-410).

The University of Ghana has now three departments recognised among the world’s best: one more than last year, with its debut in the Development Studies table (101 -110), in addition to Agriculture & Forestry (351-400) and Medicine (401-450). The only other Ghanaian university in the rankings is Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, which features in the 601-650 band in Medicine.

Ethiopia’s only institution ranked, Addis Ababa University, drops in both the subjects it features in: Agriculture & Forestry (351-400, one band down) and Medicine (551-600, one band down).

The University of Zimbabwe also drops in the only subject it features: Medicine (now 651-670 down from 551-600).

The table below features the top 10 subjects for number of ranked African university departments and the top performing department for each of these subjects. Medicine and Agriculture & Forestry are the subjects with the highest presence of African universities.

This series of rankings, in addition to the 51 subject tables, include five broad faculty areas tables. QS finds that compared to the previous edition of the rankings, of the African departments ranked:

The top performing African universities in these five tables are the University of Cape Town, which ranks 109^th globally in Life Sciences & Medicine and Cairo University, which ranks 134^th globally in Engineering & Technology.

Ben Sowter, QS Research Director, said: “This edition of the rankings shows a relative stability and, in some cases, a moderate performance improvement for African universities. However, if we consider that by 2050, Africa will be home to an estimated 2.5 billion people, 25.5% of the world’s population, our rankings show how under-represented the continent still is on the global higher education scene. Africa needs to rapidly expand its higher education systems to become more inclusive, technologically advanced, and research-intensive. Africa’s higher education must focus on the quality of teaching and learning, increasing access and enrolment ratio, and on producing highly skilled, innovative, employable graduates.”

Global Highlights 

• US institutions lead in 28 of the 51 subjects ranked. Harvard University and MIT remain the strongest-performing institutions, ranking number one in twelve subjects. 
• Fifteen subject tables are topped by a British university, with the University of Oxford leading in six.
• ETH Zurich is continental Europe’s top university, achieving number-one spots in three subjects. Moreover, based on its share of top-10 ranks, Switzerland is the world’s third-best higher education sector.  
• Australia is the fourth most represented country for the number of entries
• China (Mainland) ranks fifth globally for the number of programs (100), achieving a top-50 rank.

• No university has a larger number of top-50 than Canada’s University of Toronto (46).  
• The National University of Singapore – Asia’s best-performing university – is the world’s best for Petroleum Engineering. NUS ranks among the top-10 in sixteen disciplines.
• The Japanese Higher Education system is still in relative decline after decades of underfunding for research and PhD students. 
• Universidad de Chile achieves Latin America’s highest rank, 8^th globally in Engineering - Mineral & Mining.
• The University of Cape Town remains Africa’s most competitive institution, placing 9^th globally in Development Studies.
• King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, 6^th globally for Petroleum Engineering, achieves the Arab region’s highest rank.

Ben Sowter concluded: “Observing performance trends across over 15,000 university departments enables us to see which factors influence success. First, An international outlook—both in terms of faculty body and research relationships—correlates strongly with improved performance. Second, rising universities received targeted investment from governments for over a decade. Last, strengthening relationships with industry correlates with better employment, research, and innovation outcomes.” 

   The full rankings can be found at https://www.TopUniversities.com/subject-rankings/2022