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Ranking the 18 best universities in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·2 Nov 2017

The latest University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) for 2018 has been published, listing the 18 top universities in the country.

The URAP differs from other widely published rankings by not precluding the lower-end of institutions, particularly in developing nations.

Most ranking systems cover up to top 500 universities around the world, which mostly represents institutions located in developed countries, the group said.

“Universities from other countries around the world also deserve and need to know where they stand among other institutions at global and national levels,” it said.

With 18 South African universities making the list for the 2017/18 review period, it is the most comprehensive look at South Africa’s higher education institutes (HEIs).

The ranking is based on six academic performance indicators. Since URAP is an academic performance based ranking, publications constitute the basis of the ranking methodology, it said. Both quality and quantity of publications and international research collaboration performance are used as indicators.

The overall score of each HEI is based on its performance over several indicators, including current scientific productivity, research impact, research quality and international acceptance.

Data is gathered from Web of Science and other sources which provide lists of HEIs, the group said.

As is the common finding among most university rankings, the University of Cape Town once again tops as the country’s best HEI, followed by Wits, UKZN and Stellenbosch.

UCT’s global ranking has improved from the 2017 list, moving from 240th to 229th, while Wits dropped one place from 316th to 317th – though scores for both universities improved.

The rest of the list remains somewhat unchanged, with the exception of the University of South Africa (Unisa) overtaking the University of the Free State; Durban University of Technology climbing above the University of Limpopo and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology; and the re-inclusion of the University of Fort Hare and University of Venda, due to the URAP extending to the top 2500 universities in the world.

There were three big climbers in the rankings, with Unisa climbing 70 places, Rhodes climbing 64 places and the University of Johannesburg climbing 51 places.

Big drops include the Durban University of Technology, the University of Limpopo and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, which all dropped out of the top 2000.

The table below outlines how each university fared.

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