Pretoria - South African universities’ global standing has dropped slightly, but seven of the country’s universities continued flying the flag high in the 2022/23 Best Global Universities ranking.
These institutions squeezed into the top 500 universities spot in the ninth annual US News & World Report Best Global Universities rankings.
Since an increasing number of students enrol in universities outside of their own country, the Best Global Universities rankings provide insight into how universities compared globally, focusing specifically on academic research and reputation overall and not on undergraduate or graduate programmes. The report looked at 2 000 top institutions, up from 1 750 last year, spread across 95 countries.
To assist students to compare and make their pick, profile pages list the overall global score and numerical ranks for the 13 indicators.
Of South Africa’s 13 universities, UCT topped the local list, at 125th position overall. Wits came in second place, moving from 212 to 244; third place went to Stellenbosch University (up from 317 to 304), the University of KwaZulu-Natal moved up one spot from 371 to 370; and fifth place was taken up by the University of Johannesburg (down to 421 from 417).
Tshwane’s University of Pretoria clinched the sixth place, going to 452 from 434, and the last place in the top 500 was taken by the North West University which went from 510 to 487.
UCT was the only local university ranked within the top 150, but it is down significantly from its position in the 2021/22 report, at 109th place. Similarly, Wits, the University of Johannesburg, University of Pretoria, Rhodes
University, Tshwane University of Technology and Nelson Mandela University all slipped down the rankings.
Stellenbosch, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Potchefstroom University, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Free State and Unisa all climbed the rankings.
In previous rankings, six local universities were among the global top 500, but in the latest ranking, North-West University joined the ranks in 487th place.
Pretoria News