QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education specialists, have released the 2025 edition of the *world's most-consulted international university ranking¹, the only ranking framework of its kind that assesses employability and sustainability performance. * Link will be live once the embargo lifts.

The 2025 QS World University Rankings sees forty African universities ranked, with 70% improving or remaining stable year-on-year. This year’s world university rankings feature 1,500 universities across 106 higher education systems. The United States is the most represented country, with 197 ranked institutions, followed by the United Kingdom with 90 and China (Mainland) with 71. The African continent is home to 40 ranked institutions. Among these, 20 climb the table and six drop while 14 remain stable in their rank or band, giving it an overall improvement rate of 50%. 

Globally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) celebrates its thirteenth year at the top. Imperial College London jumps four places to take 2^nd and the University of Oxford and Harvard University remain in 3^rd and 4^th place, respectively. Switzerland and Singapore are the only other countries featured in the top 10, with ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and National University of Singapore (NUS) placing seventh and eighth respectively. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is the only institution to break into the top 10 in this edition.

QS World University Rankings 2025: Top 20
2025 Rank	2024 Rank	Institution	Location
1	1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States
2	6	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
3	3	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
4	4	Harvard University	United States
5	2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
6	5	Stanford University	United States
7	7	ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology	Switzerland
8	8	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore
9	9	UCL	United Kingdom
10	15	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States
11	12	University of Pennsylvania	United States
12	10	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States
13	14	The University of Melbourne	Australia
14	=17	Peking University	China (Mainland)
15	=26	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU)	Singapore
16	13	Cornell University	United States
17	=26	The University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong SAR
18	=19	The University of Sydney	Australia
19	=19	The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)	Australia
20	25	Tsinghua University	China (Mainland)

 

Executive Summary: Africa

• Forty African universities feature in the 2025 rankings, with an equal number from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• One university from South Africa ranks amongst the world’s Top 200 and a further four are in the Top 500, along with two from Egypt.
• South African universities exceed the global average in six of the nine indicators.
• Almost all African universities approximate or exceed the global average for international research collaboration and graduate employability.
• Tunisia and Ethiopia are the regional leaders in QS’ measure of class size and teaching resources, Faculty per Student Ratio.
• 87% of African universities with available data have sent their international reputation increase among international academics.
• No Sub-Saharan African university drops down the table

QS World University Rankings 2025: African Ranked Universities Top 1000
2025 Rank	2024 Rank	Institution	Country
171	=173	University of Cape Town	South Africa
=267	=264	University of Witwatersrand	South Africa
296	283	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
=312	306	University of Johannesburg	South Africa
=350	=371	Cairo University	Egypt
354	=323	University of Pretoria	South Africa
=410	=415	The American University in Cairo	Egypt
=587	621-630	University of Kwazulu-Natal	South Africa
=592	721-730	Ain Shams University	Egypt
771-780	851-900	Addis Ababa University	Ethiopia
771-780	951-1000	Université de Tunis El Manar	Tunisia
801-850	901-950	Alexandria University	Egypt
851-900	801-850	North-West University	South Africa
851-900	951-1000	University of Ghana	Ghana
851-900	851-900	University of South Africa	South Africa

 
Ben Sowter, QS Senior Vice President, said: "Africa, in many ways, remains a sleeping giant on the world’s stage. While its multitude of nuanced and varied economies continue to find growth and prosperity elusive, the 2025 edition of the QS World University Rankings paints a positive picture of the higher education systems featured. Of the 40 African universities ranked, only four have dropped down the table, all of which belong to South Africa. This success is indicative of a highly charged educational ecosystem, brimming with potential and capable of propelling progress in the region, underpinned by the skilled and work-ready graduates who are clearly emerging from its universities.”

Africa: In Focus

• Northern Africa is home to 20 ranked universities, seven, of which featured in the world’s Top 1000 – six from Egypt and one from Tunisia.
• Egypt is among the world’s most improved countries in this edition of the rankings. It has improved by 47% overall, the sixth highest in the world, among countries with 10 or more ranked universities.
• Equally, Sub-Saharan Africa with 20 ranked universities sees a total of fourteen universities making the Top 1000 list, ten from South Africa, and one each from Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya.
• University of Cape Town is the only African university to feature amongst the world’s Top 200.
• Eight African countries boast universities in the world’s top 100 for Employment Outcomes, suggesting their graduates have good job prospects and make an impact in their chosen careers.

Graduate Employment Rate
Institution	Score	Rank	Change
University of Witwatersrand	98.9	18	+3
Makerere University	98.3	25	+26
University of Cape Town	95.8	46	-8
Addis Ababa University	95.5	49	+65
Cairo University	95.5	50	+13
University of Ghana	95.4	51	+38
University of South Africa	92.8	65	+16
University of Nairobi	92.5	67	+49
University of Lagos	87.6	91

 

• The top 10 places in three of the performance lenses that QS employs to compile the rankings contain an equal number of universities from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. These indicators include Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, and International Students Ratio.

Academic Reputation					Employer Reputation					International Students
Institution	Score	Rank	Change		Institution	Score	Rank	Change		Institution	Score	Rank	Change
Cairo University	45.8	179	+14		University of Cape Town	51.8	170	-6		University of Johannesburg	51.4	285	+1
University of Cape Town	45.2	185	+5		University of Pretoria	48.8	185	-30		Rhodes University	33.2	403	-28
The American University in Cairo	32.1	274	+13		University of Witwatersrand	42.1	223	-9		Future University in Egypt	21.7	519	+108
University of Witwatersrand	26.5	332	+9		Cairo University	41	229	+68		Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport	20.4	533	-83
Stellenbosch University	26.1	342	+9		Stellenbosch University	35.8	262	-22		University of Cape Town	19.2	563	-36
Ain Shams University	24	364	+30		Future University in Egypt	34.7	272	+77		Al-Azhar University	9.5	739	-33
University of Pretoria	23.9	368	-3		Ain Shams University	32.2	292	+85		University of Pretoria	8.2	777	+45
Alexandria University	23.1	385	+15		The American University in Cairo	31.1	301	+104		Stellenbosch University	8	782	-3
University of Johannesburg	17.7	513	+27		Alexandria University	18.3	482	+129		Université de Tunis El Manar	7.8	788	+107
Mansoura University	14.1	613	+43		University of Johannesburg	17.9	491	-57		Ain Shams University	7.5	799	+60

 

The table below shows Africa’s top performing university in each of QS’ indicators.

Performance Lens	Weight	Top Performing African University	Rank by Indicator	Overall Rank
Academic Reputation	30%	Cairo University	179th	350
Employer Reputation	15%	University of Cape Town	170th	171
Faculty Student Ratio	10%	Addis Ababa University	249th	771-780
Citations per Faculty	20%	Stellenbosch University	190th	296
International Faculty Ratio	5%	The American University in Cairo	130th	410
International Student Ratio	5%	University of Johannesburg	285th	312
International Research Network	5%	University of Pretoria	24th	354
Employment Outcomes	5%	University of Witwatersrand	18th	267
Sustainability	5%	University of Cape Town	50th	171

 

 

Africa Overview

In comparing African universities performance, South Africa which has the second highest number of ranked universities and is the only country showing a decline of 55% in its overall performance. Egypt leads the region with the most ranked universities but less than made the Top 1000 while South Africa is the only African country to have a university in the Top 200 and a further 90% of their universities featuring in the Top 1000.

 

Country/Territory	Ranked Universities	% Improved	% Unchanged	% Declined	New	Top 200	Top 500	Top 1000
South Africa	11	18	27	55		1	5	10
Egypt	15	47	53	0			2	6
Ethiopia	1	100	0	0				1
Tunisia	4	50	50	0				1
Ghana	2	100	0	0				1
Uganda	1	100	0	0				1
Kenya	2	50	50	0				1
Morocco	1	100	0	0
Nigeria	2	100	0	0
Sudan	1	100	0	0

 

 

The chart below provides a detailed comparison of various performance indicators for higher education institutions across multiple African countries.

 

QS World University Rankings 2025: Regional comparison: Africa by average scores per indicators
Country/Territory	No HEi ranked	Academic Reputation Score	Employer Reputation Score	Faculty Staff Ratio Score	Citations Per Faculty Score	International Faculty Ratio Score	International Students Ratio Score	International Research Network Score	Employment Outcomes Score	Sustainability Score
Global	1503	20.3	19.8	28.1	23.5	30.7	25.6	50.1	23.8	24.3
South Africa	11	17.4	22.1	9.3	23.8	42.2	13.2	89.7	61.1	38.5
Egypt	15	14.4	16.3	14.2	2.3	12.3	6.3	52.2	21.7	9.9
Ethiopia	1	6.4	9.3	58.8	1.7			55.2	95.5	3.3
Tunisia	4	7.0	3.5	35.1	3.1	10.9	3.8	49.2	29.1	6.6
Ghana	2	9.2	6.8	3.4	3.7	4.5	1.7	64.1	65.0	5.0
Uganda	1	11.0	4.2	3.4	4.5	9.6	7.5	64.8	98.3	3.5
Kenya	2	8.5	9.6	10.8	1.6			31.6	60.5	1.4
Morocco	1	3.7	3.3	1.5	4.5	3.8	2.6	77.7	70.1	2.9
Nigeria	2	9.2	7.7	3.7	3.1			49.9	78.5	1.8
Sudan	1	6.1	4.0	6.7	2.6		1.4	45.0	74.1	1.0

 

Key observations and insights, with a focus on regional performances:

• South Africa excels in six of the nine criteria, scoring higher than the global average: Employer Reputation (22.1), Citations Per Faculty (23.8), International Faculty Ratio (42.2), International Research Network (89.7), Employment outcomes (61.1) and Sustainability (38.5).
• Egypt featuring the most ranked universities exceeds the global average in International Research Network (52.1)
• Tunisia with the third highest number of ranked universities, has scored higher than the global average in Faculty Staff Ratio (35.1), International Research Network (49.2), and Employment Outcomes (29.1).
• Ethiopia with only one ranked university has scored low in seven of the nine indicators but have achieved higher scores for Faculty Staff Ratio (58.8), International Research Network (55.2), and a score of 95.5 for Employment Outcomes which exceeds the global average by 71.7 points.
• Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan with one or two universities ranked display high scores for International Research Network and Employment Outcomes, many of them exceeding the global average. Uganda tops the tables for Employment Outcomes with an impressive score of 98.3, exceeding the global average by 74.5 points and 37.2 points ahead of South Africa’s average score.

 

Global Highlights

• The UK has more elite universities than any other country, with three of the top five positions and excels in International Student Ratio, achieving the world’s second-highest average score, behind only Saudi Arabia.
• The US maintains its global reputation according to employers and academics.
• Canadian higher education excels in Sustainability, with two universities in the world’s top five, including the University of Toronto.
• Australia leads the International Research Network in the Asia-Pacific region, claiming nine of the top 10 positions and boasts three institutions among the top 20.
• Among China's five top-100 universities, four ascended in the rankings. Peking University holds the highest position at 14th, rising three spots.
• India has shown remarkable progress, with 91% of its 46 ranked universities either climbing, remaining stable, or being new entries.
• Indonesia, Pakistan and Türkiye are among the most improved countries.
• Latin America boasts four top-100 universities: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
  and Universidade de São Paulo.
• KFUPM (101^st) in Saudi Arabia is the highest-ranked Arab institution, narrowly missing the top 100. Meanwhile, the University of Cape Town (171^st) is Africa’s leader.

Methodology

Detailed methodological information can be found at QS World University Rankings 2025 methodology (topuniversities.com)??????? 

The full rankings will be available on Wednesday 04^th June, 22:00 PM CAT and can be found at https://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings/2025