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Nigeria, along with several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, was absent from the recent Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2025. Among the 54 recognized countries in Africa, Nigeria boasts 278 universities, while Tunisia ranks second with 236, and Morocco has 154 institutions.
The University of Cape Town in South Africa is the sole African university included in the prestigious list of 300 top universities. This edition of the World Reputation Rankings highlights leading universities based on their prestige, showcasing the top institutions globally for academic recognition.
The 2025 rankings feature 300 universities from 38 nations and regions, employing a revised methodology. For the 14th consecutive year, Harvard University retains the top position and shares the lead for a new voter diversity metric with Oxford and Cambridge, reaffirming its reputation as the most esteemed university in the US. Oxford has reached a joint second place, marking the highest rank for a UK institution since 2015.
Tsinghua University holds steady at eighth in global academic reputation. LMU Munich, KU Leuven, Sorbonne University, the University of Melbourne, University of Hong Kong, and University of Manchester have all entered the top 50 most influential university brands. This year's rankings introduced ten new countries, with four making their debut: Chile, Malaysia, Poland, and Portugal. The updated methodology offers unprecedented insights into university prestige around the globe.
According to THE, the World Reputation Rankings, now in its 14th year, use six performance indicators for the first time, allowing for a more comprehensive evaluation of reputation, reflecting its growing importance within the academic sphere.
The performance rankings include Harvard University (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), University of Oxford (UK), Stanford University (US), University of Cambridge (UK), and University of California (US). Princeton University (US) is in seventh place, followed by Tsinghua University (China), Yale University (US), and the University of Tokyo (Japan) rounding out the top ten.
