SA universities: UCT continues to lead the pack in world rankings
The University of Cape Town is the only institution ranked within the Top 300 globally. Here’s how other SA universities rank.
Eight SA universities have made it to the list of 1000 best institutions in the world with the University of Cape Town leading the pack after the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy has published its 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities.
The University of Cape Town is the only South African university that features in the top 300 globally.
HERE’S HOW SA UNIVERSITIES RANK GLOBALLY
The ARWU adopts six objective indicators to rank world universities:
- The number of alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
- The number of staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
- The number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science
- The number of research articles indexed in Science Citation Index – expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index
- The per capita performance of an institution
| World Rank | Institution |
| 201 – 300 | University of Cape Town (UCT) |
| 301 – 400 | University of Witwatersrand (Wits) |
| 401 – 500 | Stellenbosch University |
| 401 – 500 | University of Pretoria |
| 501 – 600 | North West University |
| 501 – 600 | University of Johannesburg |
| 501 – 600 | University of KwaZulu-Natal |
| 901 – 1000 | University of South Africa (UNISA) |
Source: ShanghaiRanking Consultancy
HAVARD MAINTAINS TOP SPOT
Harvard University tops the ranking list for the 21st year, followed by Stanford and MIT. Other Top 10 universities are Cambridge (4th), Berkeley (5th), Princeton (6th), Oxford (7th), Columbia (8th), Caltech (9th), and Chicago (10th).
In Continental Europe, Paris-Saclay University (15th) rises one position and remains the best, followed by ETH Zurich (20th). Among Asian universities, Tsinghua University (22nd) moves up four positions and holds the best place in Asia for the first time. The University of Melbourne (35th) tops of other universities in Oceania for thirteen consecutive years since 2011.
ALSO READ: SA universities amongst world’s best on Times Higher Education list
Two Chinese universities make their first appearance in ARWU Top 100, namely Central South University (95th) and Nanjing University (96th). There are 35 universities enter into Top 1000 for the first time.
More than 2500 universities are ranked by ARWU, and the best 1000 universities are published.