Lifestyle

South Africa’s best young universities

Staff Writer

 ·21 Jul 2017

A new QS World University Rankings report highlights fast-developing ‘young’ universities making a rapid impact on the global education system. Among the top 10 is a French based engineering and science university, which only opened its doors in 2015, while one South African institution features in the top 100.

First published in 2012, the QS Top 50 Under 50 list focuses on those institutions founded less than 50 years ago, with many of the top institutions focusing on science and technology including the top three on the 2017/18 list.

Nanyang Technological University in Singapore tops the list again, and is ranked 11th best institution in the world in the QS overall ranking, behind usual suspects including: MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford, Caltech, and Oxford. It is however, ranked fourth best in the world for engineering and technology.

The University of Johannesburg ranks inside the top 100 ‘young’ universities on the QS list, having been merged in 2005.

QS noted that UJ has, over the past eight years, invested in excess of R2 billion into the upgrading and expansion of living and learning facilities on all of its campuses. The university’s graduate success rate is 83.4% and the overall annual graduate output is in excess of 11,400 students.

“Notable too, is that UJ, with more than 50,000 students; 3,400 international students; 7,800 postgraduates; and renowned academic staff, is an institution with an admirable graduation rate. UJ is home to 176 rated researchers, six of whom are A-rated, and has 12 South African Research Chairs. Additionally, it produces the largest number of black accountants of all accredited universities in the country,” the report said.

Also featuring on the list are the University of Kwazulu-Natal, and the North-West University, which are also both products of a merger of campuses in 2004.

Top 10 youngest universities

• The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University.
• The University of KwaZulu-Natal was replaced by UJ in 2016 was formed in January 2004 as a result of the merger between the University of Durban-Westville and the University of Natal.
• The North-West University was merged in January 2004 onwards with three campuses at Potchefstroom, Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. The Potchefstroom Campus (founded in 1869) is the largest, and the head office of the University is situated at this location. With its merged status, the North-West University became one of the largest universities in South Africa and has approximately 64,000 students

Last month QS released its overall World University Ranking for 2017/18, showing that the University of Cape Town remains the leading university in South Africa, with UJ ranked fifth best in the country.

Top universities in South Africa

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