The University of Nairobi has claimed the top position among Kenyan institutions in the inaugural QS World University Rankings for Sub-Saharan Africa, achieving an overall score of 62.9 and placing 17th in a field of nearly 70 universities from 21 countries.
In the inaugural edition of the higher global education rankings released by the UK-based education analysis firm Quacquarelli Symonds, Kenya secured six positions. The University of Nairobi is the only Kenyan institution to feature in the top 20 overall and among the top 20 for the Employer Reputation indicator.
Kenyatta University placed 25th with an overall score of 41.9, Moi University ranked 32nd with 29.1, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) came in at 33rd with 28.9.
Egerton University secured the 41st position with a score of 21.7, while Machakos University was placed in the 51+ category.
The rankings assessed institutions across eight indicators weighted differently to reflect their importance to the sub-Saharan African higher education context.
The indicators include academic reputation and employer reputation, which measure how universities are viewed by academics globally and employers, respectively. The International Research Network evaluates the geographic diversity and strength of institutional research partnerships.
The other is sustainability, which assesses institutional commitment to environmental and social responsibility, including community engagement and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Citations per paper and papers per faculty, which measure research impact and productivity.
The faculty-student ratio indicates the level of individual attention students can expect, while web impact measures institutional digital presence and online engagement.
UoN achieved its strongest individual indicator performance in web impact, scoring 91.4 and placing it sixth in Africa. The institution also performed strongly in sustainability with a score of 79.1, demonstrating significant commitment to environmental and social responsibility.
Its employer reputation score of 54.6 placed it 15th among African universities, making it the only Kenyan university to feature in the top 20 for this indicator, which measures graduate employability and employer satisfaction.
Kenyatta University recorded notable performances in academic reputation with a score of 64.7 and employer reputation at 44.7, demonstrating strong recognition among academic peers and employers across the continent.
Machakos University recorded Kenya’s best performance in the citations per paper indicator with a score of 86.4, ranking seventh across the continent in research impact per publication despite its lower overall ranking. This metric measures how frequently academic work from the institution is cited by other researchers, indicating the influence and quality of its research output.
Meanwhile, JKUAT showed moderate strength in international research networks with a score of 37.8, reflecting its global research collaborations. However, its employer reputation score of 11.3 and sustainability score of 27.2 indicated areas requiring development.
Moi University achieved a sustainability score of 48.6 and an international research network score of 35, though its employer reputation performance of 17.6 lagged behind the country’s top institutions.
Egerton University demonstrated research strength with a citations per paper score of 56.4 but recorded lower scores in academic reputation at 15.2 and employer reputation at 17.1, highlighting challenges in building broader recognition among academic peers and employers.
The University of Nairobi ranked 17th and was the only institution in Kenya to feature in the top 20. It is also the only institution to feature in the top 20 in the Employer Reputation indicator, which will be a key indicator to ensure the country moves towards ambitions as part of the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
Machakos University’s score in Citations per Paper is the best in the country, where it ranks seventh in Africa,” said Ben Sowter, QS Senior Vice President.
South African institutions dominated the overall rankings, claiming 14 of the top 20 positions, with the University of Cape Town taking first place. Nigeria placed 11 universities in the rankings, while Ghana secured seven positions and Ethiopia eight.
Uganda’s Makerere University ranked 16th. Other East African institutions in the rankings include the University of Rwanda at 37th and Tanzania’s University of Dar-es-Salaam at 21st.
