The University of Nairobi tops as the most popular institution of higher learning in Kenya in the latest ranking by UniRank, a leading higher education directory and search engine.
At least 63 varsities have been ranked with only three privately-run making it to the top 10.
Strathmore University has emerged third after Kenyatta as USIU comes a distant fourth.
Mount Kenya University is at position seven ahead of Moi, Technical University of Kenya (TUK) and Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA).
The institutions are ranked after meeting a certain selection criteria which include being chartered, licensed or accredited by the appropriate Kenyan higher education-related organizations.
Other requirements include offering at least three-year bachelors' degrees or postgraduate masters' or doctoral degrees and delivering courses predominantly in a traditional, non-distance education format.
"UniRank aims to provide a non-academic league table of the top Kenyan Universities based on valid, unbiased and non-influenceable web metrics," it states.
It draws this from independent web intelligence sources rather than data submitted by the universities themselves.
Founded in 2008, MKU, which currently boasts of nine branches, has continued to gain recognition, surpassing public institutions in enrolment.
It admits both government-sponsored and self-sponsored students under various study modes.
As per the 2023 edition of the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), UoN emerged as the only Kenyan institution that made it to the list of 2,000 best varsities globally.
It was ranked at position 1,425, a drop of 20 places from the previous ranking.
CWUR is a leading consulting organization providing policy advice, strategic insights and consulting services to governments and universities to improve educational and research outcomes.
It evaluates the institutions based on four key areas.
These are education (25 per cent), employability (25 per cent), faculty (10 per cent), and research (40 per cent).
The global university ranking is the largest of its kind listing top 2,000 universities out of 20,531 ranked institutions.
