The Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of universities in sub -Saharan Africa, has rated universities in South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda higher than many Nigerian institutions.
The University of Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa, topped the inaugural THE’s sub-Saharan Africa university rankings.
According to the EduTimes Africa, July 2023 edition, “The public institution, commonly known as Wits University, which celebrated its centenary last year, and has Nelson Mandela among its alumni, topped THE’s innovative new ranking.”
The second highest-ranked university is the University of Johannesburg, also in South Africa, while the third is the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, in Tanzania.
Covenant University, a private Christian university in Ota, Ogun State, which occupied the seventh position, is Nigeria’s best-ranked institution.
The others are the University of Pretoria, South Africa placed fourth, Makerere University, Uganda fifth, and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa in sixth position.
The University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda, Ashesi University, Ghana, and Tanzania’s Ardhi University are in eighth, ninth and tenth positions respectively.
The ranking highlights the strongest universities in sub-Saharan Africa across a comprehensive range of performance indicators – covering five areas such as ‘access and fairness’, ‘Africa impact’, ‘teaching skills’, ‘student engagement’, and ‘resources and finance’.
The ranking produced in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation, ranked 88 universities from 17 countries in the region.
Of all the countries, Nigeria with 37 universities has the highest number in the ranking, followed by South Africa with nine, Ghana and Kenya have seven each, and Somalia and Uganda have five each.
The ranking provides a rich source of data on the differences between public and private universities. Of the 88 ranked universities, 59 (67 percent) are public, 21 (24 percent) are private not-for-profit and eight are private for-profit (9 percent) and seven of the top 10 universities are public.
Public universities received an average overall score in the ranking of 50 and charged students a median of £966 ( about N992,140,572) per year. By comparison, private institutions scored an average of 43, with not-for-profits charging £1,922 (N1,946,986), and for-profits charging £3,291 (N3,333,783) annually.
