Johannesburg - South Africa has eight of the top 15 universities in Africa, but its higher learning institutions are rated as the worst performing among the Brics emerging market nations, two separate reports released this week said.
A study released by Times Higher Education rated the University of Cape Town as Africa's premier institution, followed by the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
But South Africa was ranked last in the World Economic Forum's 2015 report on the quality of maths and science education and 139th out of 143 countries in the overall quality of its education system.
The Times Higher Education report put Uganda's oldest and largest institution of higher learning, Makerere University, in third place in Africa, in a statement released on Thursday.
The Times rankings assess universities on their published research, reviews and academic papers between 2009 and 2013.
In a separate study released by QS University Rankings, South Africa did not rank highly among the top 10 institutions when compared to the other Brics countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Of the 404 Brics institutions that were evaluated, the University of Cape Town was ranked 14th, five places lower than in 2014, and the University of Witwatersrand was 28th, with only four South African universities making it to the top 50.
Reuters