The first-ever Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings for 2023 place Covenant University in Ota, Nigeria, at number seven.
The first-ever Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings for 2023 place Covenant University in Ota, Nigeria, at number seven. The best university on the continent is the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Wits University, a public institution better known by its abbreviation, was founded in 1918, celebrated its centenary year last year, counts Nelson Mandela among its alumni, and now topS THE’S novel new ranking.
University of Johannesburg in South Africa is ranked second, and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania is ranked third.
Two universities from Tanzania and four from South Africa are among the top 10. Only one university in Nigeria, Covenant University, is among the top 10.
A comprehensive set of performance indicators covering five pillars—access and fairness, impact on Africa, teaching skills, student engagement, and resources and finance—are used in the ground-breaking new ranking to identify the best universities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
88 universities from 17 countries in the sub-Saharan region are ranked in the Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings, which was created in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation.
The country with the most universities in the ranking is Nigeria, with 37; South Africa is second with 9, Ghana and Kenya are both at seven, and Somalia and Uganda are both at five.
A wealth of information about the distinctions between public and private universities can be found in the ranking. Seven of the top 10 universities are public, out of the 88 ranked universities, 59 (67%) are public, 21 (24%) are private not-for-profit institutions, and eight are private for-profit institutions (9%).
In the rankings of 50 public universities, public universities received an average overall score and charged students a median of £966 annually. Comparatively, private institutions received an average score of 43, with for-profit institutions charging £3,291 and not-for-profits £1,922 annually.
For four of the five pillars—access and fairness; impact on Africa; resources and finance; and student engagement—public providers performed better on average. In general, teaching and employability skills at private universities are better.
With over 18,000 students compared to 3,500 at private universities, public universities have a larger student body than do private universities. Public universities have a 28-year age difference on average. According to a survey of students, students at private universities are more satisfied with their education overall, including the facilities, peer interaction, employability, course quality, and teaching engagement.