In a recent appearance on the Keystone Higher Ed Chats Podcast, Amo Kubeyinje – Director of Graduate Admissions & International Recruitment at Canisius University – discussed how there is an increasing focus on Higher Education throughout Africa. During which, he elaborated on a few key points:
Today, we will investigate what our data reveals about Higher Education in Africa, from its most popular study destinations and largest audiences to its most valued attributes.
Let’s begin with the destinations that audiences are searching for.
When tracking the searching habits of students across our platforms between May and July 2025, we see one very clear trend.
Audiences are drawn to South Africa.
It is the only African study destination in the top 20 globally by Share of Search, placing 19th – just ahead of Finland and just behind the United Arab Emirates. And, in fact, this becomes ever more evident when we reduce the search data to only those interested in an African study destination. You can see the results below:
Yes, South Africa currently accounts for slightly more than half of all searches for African study, and what is particularly interesting here, is where those searches are coming from.
We discussed in the introduction how Africa as a whole is excelling at increasing intra-African mobility. However, none of South Africa’s three largest audiences are African, as you can see for yourself below:
Despite South Africa clearly succeeding in attracting African interest – as evidenced by half of their 20 largest audiences being African – its reach goes much further.
Singapore, the USA, and China collectively account for over 20% of all searches for by themselves, while also inside the top 10, we find Germany (3.17%), the UK (2.65%), and France (2.49%).
Attracting interest from both inside and outside the continent is clearly a healthy position to be in. But which destination from across Africa is succeeding the most in attracting study interest?
Below is a bar chart of the five African destinations that experienced the largest growth in interest between April and July this year. There is a pattern, can you spot it?
With a 58% rise in interest, Botswana leads the way for African study destinations in recent months, and with a steady 10% rise, Morocco rounds out our list. Then from 2nd to 4th we have Namibia, Ghana, and Nigeria. All of which have seen at least a 28% rise in interest. All of which are West African. It would therefore appear that West Africa is the up-and-comer with regards to African HE.
This pattern continues when we expand our parameters. Collectively, all West African study destinations have seen 25% growth in the same time period. This is much greater than the growth figures we see for any other African region.
But why might that be? What is it that audiences value in African HE, and how does it compare to other study destinations globally?
We ask our survey respondents to rank a series of factors related to their choice of study destination on a scale of ‘very good’ to very poor’. It helps us understand the prevailing sentiment that our audiences have towards their study destination, and can highlight strengths of an education system – as well as areas that could be addressed.
Below, we see the percentage of respondents that selected ‘very good’ for each factor, broken down by audiences looking to study in Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia:
We see that African destinations are relatively comparable with regards to positive sentiment around visa & entry requirements and affordability. However, they lag behind on reputation, safety and subject choice. The challenge here may be more to do with awareness of what Africa offers than with the offer itself.
As Mr. Kubeyinje detailed, Africa already appeals to students who are aware of its unique subject offerings: “I wouldn’t call it a surge…but we’re certainly seeing more students from Europe and Asia enrolling at African universities, in particular in niche fields like tropical medicine or renewable energy” - which highlights the demand from prospective students from outside of Africa that are drawn to the continent to study distinctive, in some cases unique, subject areas.
Alongside that, we see more African universities featured in global rankings every year - including institutions such as Kafrelsheikh University and Mansoura University who are trending up those rankings - and both their staff and alumni consistently achieve remarkable feats across a wide array of fields, as Nobel Prizes in Literature, Physiology or Medicine, Chemistry, and Peace can attest to.
Leaning into these areas may help universities bridge the perceived gap between African institutions in comparison to those from Europe, North America, and Asia – particularly with regards to academic reputation and distinctive subject areas.
Our data shows that interest in Africa is increasing and diversifying - one of several stories highlighting changing destinations in a changing in a shifting international education landscape.