Universities in Africa
Higher Education in Africa
Introduction
What are the most popular Universities in each African country? uniRank tries to answer this question by publishing a list of African countries and providing a ranking of their higher-education institutions meeting the following uniRank selection criteria:
- being chartered, licensed or accredited by the appropriate higher education-related organization in each African country
- offering at least four-year undergraduate degrees (bachelor degrees) or postgraduate degrees (master or doctoral degrees)
- delivering courses predominantly in a traditional, face-to-face, non-distance education format
African Universities by Country
African Universities Search Engine New
searching 1,174 universities in Africa
Snapshot of Higher Education in Africa (2020 data)
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African Universities World Representation
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uniRank African Universities World Representation Index: 8.9%
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Public vs Private Universities in Africa
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Non-profit vs for-profit Universities in Africa
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Challenges for the higher education system in Africa
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Top 200 Universities in Africa
How many Universities are there in Africa? According to the uniRank database in 2020 there are currently 1,225 officially recognized higher-education institutions in Africa. Considering that the uniRank database includes a total number of 13,723 officially recognized higher education institutions the proportion of African Universities in the world is as follows:
Being the estimated population of the African continent around 16,1% of the total world population (source: United Nations' World Population Prospects, the 2015 Revision), the African Higher education system and offerings seem to be strongly underrepresented in the world at least in terms of the number of higher education institutions.
How many public and private Universities are there in Africa? Out of the total number of 1,225 recognized higher educations institutions in Africa included in the uniRank database, 586 are public (i.e. officially affiliated to or run by national, state or local governments) and 601 are private. The type of control of the remaining African Universities included in the uniRank database is unknown or it has not been reported.
In terms of the number of public versus private Universities, the uniRank database shows a strong balance between public versus private higher education in the African continent as a whole. However, it is worth noting that 164 out of the top 200 Universities in Africa (82%) published by uniRank are public higher education institutions. Differences and peculiarities may still exist in each African country's higher education system.
What type of entities are Universities in Africa? Out of the total number of 1,225 recognized higher educations institutions in Africa included in the uniRank database, 661 are non-profit and 88 are for-profit. The type of entity of the remaining African Universities included in the uniRank database is unknown or it has not been reported. As a general rule, the vast majority of African public higher education institutions are not-for-profit organisations, not necessarily in legal terms but certainly in terms of nature and institutional purposes such as role, scope and mission.
What are the main challenges that higher education in Africa has to currently face? According to uniRank the main issues of the higher education system in Africa are inadequate funding, low research output and innovation (despite very few exceptions) and lack of harmonization of the higher education systems in the African continent as a whole.
uniRank publishes twice a year a non-academic ranking of the top 200 Universities in Africa based on valid, unbiased and non-influenceable web metrics provided by independent web intelligence sources. Please read the ranking methodology in the About Us page for more information.
According to the 2020 uniRank University Ranking most of the top Universities in Africa are located in South Africa. In the list of the top 10 Universities in Africa, for example, 7 are located in South Africa, 1 in Kenya, 1 in Nigeria and 1 in Egypt:2020 Top 10 Universities in Africa
| Rank | University | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Cape Town |  za |
| 2 | University of Pretoria | za |
| 3 | University of the Witwatersrand | za |
| 4 | Universiteit Stellenbosch | za |
| 5 | University of Johannesburg | za |
| 6 | North-West University | za |
| 7 | University of KwaZulu-Natal | za |
| 8 | The American University in Cairo | eg |
| 9 | University of Nairobi | ke |
| 10 | University of the Western Cape | za |
more top Universities in Africa
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