Best universities in South Africa vs emerging markets

The Times Higher Education has published a list of the top universities in emerging economies, with two South African universities featuring in the top 10.
The ranking: BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016 includes only institutions in countries classified as emerging by FTSE, including the “BRICS” nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
China dominates the ranking with five universities inside the top, and 39 places in the top 200.
Taiwan is second best with 24 universities in the top 200, although it only has one inside the top 10. South Africa has six universities inside the top 200.
The 2015-16 rankings include 200 institutions from 35 countries, up from 100 from 18 countries last year.
In Africa, Egypt returns to the ranking, having had no institutions represented the top 100 list last year, while Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana are also represented.
Read: 10 best universities in Africa in 2015
Top SA Universities
# | University | Country | Score |
---|---|---|---|
4 | University of Cape Town | South Africa | 56.5 |
6 | University of the Witwatersrand | South Africa | 49.3 |
11 | Stellenbosch University | South Africa | 43.3 |
46 | University of Kwa-Zulu Natal | South Africa | 31.8 |
77 | University of Pretoria | South Africa | 27.4 |
197 | University of South Africa | South Africa | 16.5 |
The performance indicators are grouped into five areas:
- Teaching (the learning environment)
- Research (volume, income and reputation)
- Citations (research influence)
- International outlook (staff, students and research)
- Industry income (knowledge transfer)
UCT scores highly for Industry income and Citations – 92.8 and 85.6 respectively.
Wits scores an impressive 99.7 points for Industry income, and 76. points for Citations. It falls down dramatically in teaching, with 26.2 points.
Stellenbosch scores full marks for Industry income, but also scores poorly for teaching, with 28.2 points.
KZN University’s best mark is for International outlook, at 58.6 points, with teaching its worst performer, with 20.3 points.
Pretoria University scores well for Industry income (52.4), but only 17.5 points for Citations.
Unisa meanwhile, achieves only 11.3 points for Citations, and 28.8 for Industry income, its best performer.
Read: Here are South Africa’s 26 universities
Top 10 emerging economy and BRICS universities
# | University | Country | Score |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Peking University | China | 73.8 |
2 | Tsinghua University | China | 72.6 |
3 | Lomonosov Moscow University | Russia | 59.7 |
4 | University of Cape Town | South Africa | 56.5 |
5 | National Taiwan University | Taiwan | 50.8 |
6 | University of the Witwatersrand | South Africa | 49.3 |
7 | University of Science and Technology of China | China | 48.6 |
8 | Zhejiang Unversity | China | 45.9 |
9 | Universidade de Sao Paulo | Brazil | 44.5 |
10 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China | 43.7 |
More on university rankings
Top South African universities in BRICS ranking
This is South Africa’s best ‘young’ university