Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings

The Times Higher Education Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings have been developed specifically to assess the impact of universities in addressing some of the toughest challenges faced in the region. We use carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across three vital areas: teaching, research and societal impact.

The data include results from the first sub-Saharan Africa student survey, which gathered the opinions of more than 20,000 students.

The development work for the ranking was undertaken in consultation with university leaders across sub-Saharan Africa, in a project initiated by a consortium of African and international higher education organisations and companies, which include Botho, Maverick and Mycos. The project was led by Ashesi University in Ghana, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. THE independently managed all data collection and calculations.

This first edition ranks 88 universities across 20 countries. An additional 33 institutions are listed because they provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank.

View the Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings 2023 methodology

The list is led by South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, while neighbouring University of Johannesburg is second and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania is third.

While South Africa has the most institutions in the top 10 (four), Nigeria is the most-represented nation overall, with 37 ranked institutions, led by Covenant University in seventh place. Universities in Uganda, Rwanda and Ghana also make the top 10.

About two-thirds of participating universities are public institutions; a quarter are private, not-for-profit organisations; and about a tenth are private, for-profit organisations.

Read our analysis of the Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings 2023 results

Download a free copy of the Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings 2023 digital report

To raise your university’s global profile with Times Higher Education, contact branding@timeshighereducation.com

To unlock the data behind THE’s Impact Rankings and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, click here.