Kenyatta University has dethroned the University of Nairobi (UoN) as Kenya’s top-ranked institution, marking a major shift in the nation's higher education landscape.
According to the 2025 World Universities Rankings released on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, Kenyatta University now leads the country, leaving UoN grappling with its sliding global and regional position.
This development follows a year in which UoN rankings fell 20 places in just 12 months, highlighting the challenges that Kenyan public universities continue to face. Funding shortages, staffing issues, and unrest among lecturers, who only recently ended a nationwide strike over pay, have weighed heavily on institutions.
The Times Higher Education rankings rely heavily on performance indicators like teaching environment, research quality, and international outlook. Kenyatta University performed better in teaching, earning a score of 14.2 per cent, compared to UoN's 12.5 per cent. However, UoN still leads in research quality, with 37.3 per cent compared to Kenyatta University’s 27.2 per cent.
According to the data, there are more female students at Kenyatta University, while at UoN the number of men is more than women. The data shows, the ratio of female to male students is 75:25 at KU and a ratio of 25:76 at UoN, the least of all universities.
Kenyatta University’s rise comes amidst broader struggles in the public university system. The funding model introduced last year, designed to provide a sustainable solution for higher education, has faced substantial resistance. Lecturers have long protested poor pay, overcrowded classes, and reduced research budgets, issues which have severely affected institutions' ability to deliver quality education.
UoN’s drop in the rankings reflects a troubling decline in two critical areas: the employability of its graduates and its research output. Once hailed for producing some of the most employable graduates in the region, UoN has now seen its students struggle to compete on the global job market. Its research output has also suffered, a key factor that global rankings take into account, contributing to its fall to 1,445th in the world, down from 1,425th last year.
This year's rankings also revealed a concerning trend for Kenya’s universities as a whole. No Kenyan university made it into the top 10 in Africa, reflecting the broader challenges faced by the sector.
Other top-ranked Kenyan universities include Amref International University, Egerton University, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kabarak University, Kibabii University, Kisii University, Maasai Mara University, Machakos University, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, University of Eldoret, University of Kabianga, and Zetech University.
The performance gap between the two universities reflects broader structural issues. Kenyatta University has outpaced UoN in its teaching environment, but UoN's research capabilities remain strong. Despite this, the pressures of underfunding and inadequate staffing are evident across the board.
Experts have pointed to the Kenyan government’s financial decisions as a key factor in these developments. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, noted, "When you underfund university teaching, the result is often worse staff-to-student ratios and inadequate contact hours. If you do this while other countries improve, your relative position is bound to deteriorate."
Public universities have also struggled with their international outlook, another key performance indicator in global rankings. Kenya's institutions have found it increasingly difficult to attract international staff and students, further limiting their competitiveness on the global stage.
