QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, have today released the QS World University Rankings 2026 *, evaluating over 1,500 universities across 106 countries. This year, Africa sees a blend of progress and stagnation, with North African and Sub-Saharan African universities grappling with challenges in reputation, research, and internationalisation as global peers surge ahead.

* The link will be updated with the 2026 results when the embargo is lifted and the full results for Africa are in the appendix of this release

North Africa: Egypt Leads, Libya enters for the first time

North Africa is represented by 28 universities, up from 21 last year. Egypt spearheads the region’s progress, contributing five new institutions to the rankings. Cairo University remains the top-ranked in North Africa and fifth on the continent, rising to joint 347th, while The American University in Cairo enters the top 400 for the first time since 2020, now ranked =381st.

Notable developments include:

• Libya's University of Tripoli debuts at 1401+.
• Université de Tunis El Manar climbs 40 spots to 731-740.
• Egypt places three institutions in the top 350 globally for International Research Network.

However, structural challenges remain. 21 of 27 North African institutions rank outside the global top 500 for Employment Outcomes, and none are in the top 800 for Citations per Faculty, a key research indicator.

Sub-Saharan Africa: South Africa dominates

Only three Sub-Saharan universities improved their overall positions this year, with South Africa again leading regional representation at 11 institutions. The University of Cape Town climbs to 150th, making it the highest-ranked in both the Sub-Saharan region and the African continent.

Key points:

• Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Nigeria) debuts at 1201–1400.
• Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda maintain position, but see no improvements.
• South Africa dominates the International Research Network indicator with nine institutions in the global top 150.

Despite strong historic performance in Employment Outcomes, only two Sub-Saharan African universities improved in this metric in 2026.

Top 15 Universities in Africa in 2026 QS World University Rankings
Rank in Africa	2026 Rank	2025 Rank	Institution	Location
1	150	171	University of Cape Town	South Africa
2	291	=267	University of The Witwatersrand	South Africa
3	302	296	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
4	=308	=312	University of Johannesburg	South Africa
5	=347	=350	Cairo University	Egypt
6	=362	354	University of Pretoria	South Africa
7	=381	=410	The American University in Cairo	Egypt
8	=542	=592	Ain Shams University	Egypt
9	=558	=587	University of Kwazulu-Natal	South Africa
10	731-740	771-780	Université de Tunis El Manar	Tunisia
11	781-790	801-850	Alexandria University	Egypt
12	851-900	851-900	University of Ghana	Ghana
12	851-900	771-780	Addis Ababa University	Ethiopia
14	901-950	901-950	Future University in Egypt	Egypt
14	901-950	851-900	University of South Africa	South Africa

 

Ben Sowter, QS Senior Vice President, said:

“Egypt’s expansion in the rankings—adding five new universities—is a remarkable sign of momentum in North Africa. Meanwhile, South Africa remains the anchor of Sub-Saharan higher education, though the region as a whole must take steps to remain globally competitive.”

“Universities across Africa must invest in research, enhance employability, and pursue international collaborations if they’re to keep pace with increasingly competitive global systems.”

African countries performance in 2026 QS World University Rankings
Country	No HEi ranked	No of HEi  with lower YoY rank	Lower %	No of HEi  with same YoY rank	Same %	No of HEi  with higher YoY rank	Higher %	New
Egypt	20	2	13%	9	60%	4	27%	5
South Africa	11	6	55%	2	18%	3	27%	0
Tunisia	4	2	50%	1	25%	1	25%	0
Nigeria	3	0	0%	2	100%	0	0%	1
Morocco	2	1	100%	0	0%	0	0%	1
Ghana	2	0	0%	2	100%	0	0%	0
Libya	1	0		0		0		1
Uganda	1	1	100%	0	0%	0	0%	0
Ethiopia	1	1	100%	0	0%	0	0%	0
Sudan	1	1	100%	0	0%	0	0%	0
Kenya	1	1	100%	0	0%	0	0%	0

 

Average scores per indicator

While South Africa ranks top overall in the International Research Network indicator, with an average score of 91.1. Strong rankings for Cairo University and The American University in Cairo push up Egypt’s average score this indicator.

Location	No HEi ranked	Academic Reputation Score	Employer Reputation Score	Faculty Student Ratio Score	Citations Per Faculty Score	Int’l Faculty Ratio Score	Int’l Students Ratio Score	Int’l Research Network Score	Employment Outcomes Score	Sustainability Score	Overall Score
Global average	1,500+	20.8	21.5	34.7	21.6	36.3	29.3	47.2	41.5	44.1	25.7
South Africa	11	23.3	28.1	11.8	36.1	50.3	18.9	91.1	66.4	61.8	32.3
Ethiopia	1	7.8	12.1	65.3	2.5			63.8	96.9	41.7	19.9
Kenya	1	12.8	13.7	25.7	2.6			48.7	95.6	39.1	16.6
Uganda	1	13.4	5.3	5.8	6.5	8.3	13.6	65.3	98.3	42.0	16.5
Ghana	2	14.0	10.8	4.1	7.4	8.1	1.8	73.4	73.4	47.6	16.1
Egypt	20	17.7	17.7	17.4	5.1	12.5	9.9	53.7	20.8	41.3	16.1
Tunisia	4	11.2	5.0	44.1	5.3	16.7	7.2	48.9	35.7	45.0	15.7
Nigeria	3	9.1	14.2	6.3	4.9	2.0	1.4	51.6	82.5	35.5	13.3
Sudan	1	8.9	6.9	8.2	5.1		2.1	53.5	84.9	23.3	12.1
Morocco	2	9.7	3.1	2.0	10.8	15.9	5.0	52.1	40.4	39.7	11.7
Libya	1	6.8	12.8	8.6	1.3	1.2	3.4	30.6	28.7	11.2	7

 

 

Employment & Research: The core challenges

North Africa:

• Cairo University (43rd), AUC (118th), and University of Khartoum (137th) lead Employment Outcomes.
• Only The American University in Cairo improved in Employer Reputation.

Sub-Saharan Africa:

• Ahmadu Bello University from Nigeria debuts strongly at 154th in Employment Outcomes.
• Despite 14 Sub-Saharan institutions being in the top 250 for this metric, 16 of 19 dropped year-on-year.
• UCT is now 183rd globally for Academic Reputation and 176th for Citations per Faculty.

Global context: a competitive landscape  
The QS World University Rankings 2026 evaluates 1,500+ institutions across 106 countries and territories. Global competition is intensifying, particularly across Europe, North America, and Asia:

QS World University Rankings 2026: Top 10
2026 Rank?	2025 Rank?	Institution??	Location??
1?	1?	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)??	United States of America??
2?	2?	Imperial College London??	United Kingdom??
3?	6?	Stanford University??	United States of America??
4?	3?	University of Oxford??	United Kingdom??
5?	4?	Harvard University??	United States of America??
6?	5?	University of Cambridge??	United Kingdom??
7?	7?	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)??	Switzerland??
8?	8?	National University of Singapore (NUS)??	Singapore??
9?	9?	UCL (University College London)??	United Kingdom??
10?	10?	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)??	United States of America??

 

• MIT retains its top position for the 14th year, followed by Imperial College London (2nd) and Stanford University (3rd). 

• The United States remains the most represented system, with 192 universities, and sees more institutions rise than fall in this edition. 

• Germany sees more universities improve than decline, a reversal from recent. 

• Italy enters the global top 100 for the first time, with Politecnico di Milano ranked 98^th. 

• China continues its ascent. Peking University holds on to its 14^th place, while Tsinghua University rises to 17th, and Fudan University climbs nine spots to 30th, signalling a strong research-led push.   

•  Hong Kong SAR is also the world’s second most improved higher education system in this edition, among those with five or more ranked universities. Only Ireland improves by more.   

These shifts underscore the growing importance of international visibility, talent attraction, and cross-border collaboration, areas where Czech universities must now focus to remain competitive. 

The QS World University Rankings 2026 is based on a weighted index of indicators listed below.  
For further details, visit the QS methodology page. 

Lens	Weighting	Indicator	Weighting
Research and Discovery	50%	Academic Reputation	30%
		Citations per Faculty	20%
Employability and Outcomes	20%	Employer Reputation	15%
		Employment Outcomes	5%
Global Engagement	15%	International Faculty Ratio	5%
		International Research Network	5%
		International Student Diversity	0%
		International Student Ratio	5%
Learning Experience	10%	Faculty Student Ratio	10%
Sustainability	5%	Sustainability	5%

 

The full QS World University Rankings 2026 will be published as the embargo lifts on Thursday 19 June at 02:01 EEST and will be available at www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings.