Nigeria has emerged as Africa’s new higher education powerhouse in the 2026 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, with 24 universities making the list—the highest number from any African country. This marks a major leap for Nigeria, surpassing South Africa, which recorded 13 universities in the rankings.
The 2026 edition highlights significant growth in the continent’s academic landscape, with 55 universities from 14 African countries featured—up from just 10 a decade ago.
While Nigeria leads in sheer numbers, South Africa continues to dominate in performance quality, with four of its institutions ranked among the world’s top 500. The University of Cape Town remains Africa’s highest-ranked university at 164th globally, while the University of Johannesburg broke into the top 400 for the first time.
Nigeria’s University of Ibadan and University of Lagos both secured spots in the top 1,000, joining Ghana’s University of Cape Coast and Uganda’s Makerere University among the continent’s leading institutions.
Elsewhere, Ghana expanded its presence with four ranked universities, Botswana added a second institution, Kenya and Tanzania each maintained two, while Senegal made its debut appearance through Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar.
Education experts say the new rankings reflect rising investment, research output, and global collaboration in African higher education.