Thirteen South African universities have been ranked in the 2019/2020 list of the world’s top 200 universities, with the University of Cape Town (UCT) ranking the highest among them. UCT comes in at number 252 on a global scale and first in the country, and is followed by the University of Witwatersrand.
Last year, Wits was bested by UCT in the rankings as well.
The University of Pretoria, Stellenbosch University and University of KwaZulu-Natal round out the country’s top five universities. According to last year’s ranking, Stellenbosch University came in third place, with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and University of Pretoria coming in at the fourth and fifth places respectively.
The list was curated by the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR), and the organisation has maintained that results for local universities for 2018 and 2019 have been mixed, with the top two shifting in the ranks.
As reported by BusinessTech, Dr. Nadim Mahassen, president of the Center for World University Rankings, said that it is a worrying time for South African universities. ““Funding for higher education is crucial if the government aspires its universities to compete on the global stage. Without sustained strong investment, South African universities face the possibility of declining in the future.”
CWUR’s rankings grade universities on seven factors:
– Quality of education (25%)
– Alumni employment (25%)
– Quality of faculty (10%)
– Research output (10%)
– High-quality publications (10%)
– Influence (10%)
– Citations (10%)
Harvard University ranks as the top global university for the eighth consecutive year, and is followed by MIT. This means that MIT has achievied its highest position since 2012 by overtaking Stanford.
Cambridge, which is the top public university in the world, ranks fourth, and is followed by the University of Oxford.
Picture: Pixabay
