The adult Literacy Rate in Kenya of people ages 15 and above grew from 79 per cent in 2014 to 82 per cent in 2018 (World Bank, n.d.). Even though UNESCO (n.d.) places the current rate at 81.5 per cent, there is a clear indication that university education in Kenya is the epitome of an individual’s education life cycle with many students having to overcome obstacles including financial constrains, shortage of learning material, under-supply of primary and secondary education institutions among others.

 As such, students always aspire to enroll in the best ranking institutions by stature, size and global status. According to the Commission For University Education (n.d.), currently Kenya has close to 90 universities with 30 being public, 30 private chartered and 30 with Letter of Interim Authority (LIA). Each year, each of these institutions receive tens of thousands of letters of applications from students.

There are various methodologies which adopt different metrics to rank universities. These methodologies include Time World University Ranking, QS Top Universities Ranking, The Guardian University Ranking among others (Kamal et al., 2017). Based on  university charter, licensing and accreditation by relevant bodies of higher education in Kenya, whether a university offers four-year undergraduate degrees and mode of delivery of courses (traditional, face to face and non-distant), here is a list of top 10 universities in Kenya (UniRank, 2022).

1. University of Nairobi (view details)

2. Kenyatta University (view details)

3. Strathmore University 

4. United States International University Africa 

5. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

6. Egerton University (view details)

7. Moi University (view details)

8. Mount Kenya University (view details)

9. The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (view details)

10. Technical University of Kenya

References

World Bank (n.d.). (Link)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO (n.d.). (Link)

Commission For University Education (n.d.). (Link)

Kamal Hussein, Seyed M. Buhari, Georgios Tsaramirsis and Mohammed Basheri (2017). A New Methodology for Ranking International Universities. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 10(36). (Link)

UniRank (2022). 2021 Kenyan University Ranking. (Link)