Global University Rankings: Nigeria Left Behind

Quacquarelli Symonds a leading higher education analytics firm that publishes annual world university rankings, evaluating institutions based on academic excellence, reputation and global diversity, released its recent ranking to the astonishment of many Nigerian scholars as Nigerian universities were not found anywhere in the top 1000 names of the best universities in the world 

According to the latest Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings for 2025, featuring over 1,500 institutions across 105 countries, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is the best in the world, followed by Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of Oxford, Harvard University, respectively as the top citadels of learning across the ranked countries. 

Others are Stanford University, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, UCL London, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, United States.

The University of Cape Town, South Africa, ranked 171 is the highest ranked African country, followed by the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa ranked 267, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa ranked 296.

Other African universities at the 1000 of QS ranking are the University of Johannesburg, South Africa ranked 312, Cairo University, Giz Egypt ranked 350, University of Pretoria, South Africa ranked 354, and the American University in Cairo, Egypt ranked 410.

The University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pinetown, South Africa ranked 587, Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt ranked 592 and Addis Ababa University Ethiopia ranked 771

The University of Ibadan and University of Lagos are the only two top Nigerian higher institutions both ranked in the 1100-1200 groups.