Ghana has lost it to Nigeria as the best destination for medicine studies in West Africa, the Times Higher Education (THE) reveals.

The decision to study medicine is a life-changing one and THE states that University of Ibadan is West Africa’s best bet.

According to the 2020 World University Rankings (WUR) the Nigeria-based University,Ibadan ranks between 301-400 on the clinical, pre-clinical and health ladder while University of Ghana is positioned at 501-600 out of selected 1,500 best universities worldwide.

Africa’s best medicine and dentistry studies destination is South Africa with Cape Town University claiming the first spot.

Though Nigeria is not the top destination for studying medicine on the African continent, it bagged the top spot for the West African region.

It displaced Ghana’s premier tertiary institution,the University of Ghana which ranked second in West Africa.

The tertiary ranking is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Below is a graphical representation indicating the score of Nigeria and Ghana on the various benchmarks used in the ranking.

University of Ibadan



Founded in 1932, the University of Ibadan (UI) was the first university to be established in Nigeria. Originally an affiliated College of the University of London, it was granted full independent status in 1962.

University of Ghana



Founded in 1948 as ‘University College of the Gold Coast’ – an affiliated college of the University of London – the University of Ghana is now the oldest and largest of Ghana’s 10 public universities.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 includes almost 1,400 universities across 92 countries, standing as the largest and most diverse university rankings ever to date.

The only university ranking to be independently audited by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, and trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, this year’s league table provides great insight into the shifting balance of power in global higher education.