Big changes in latest South African university rankings

After four years of being ranked at the top university in South Africa by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), the University of the Witwatersrand has lost the top spot to the University of Cape Town in the latest listing.

CWUR’s rankings grade universities on seven factors without relying on surveys and university data submissions: quality of teaching, alumni employment, quality of faculty, research output, quality publications, influence, and citations.

The methodology has been enhanced this year, with research now accounting for 70% of the total score.

The CWUR claims to be the only global university ranking that measures the quality of education and training of students, as well as the prestige of the faculty members and the quality of their research, without relying on surveys and university data submissions.

Wits and UCT were the only two South African universities to feature within the global top 400, with Wits seeing its ranking drop from 181st in 2017 to 230th in 2018, while UCT improved its ranking from 259th in 2017 to 223rd in 2018.

Stellenbosch University was also a major faller, dropping from third in South Africa in 2017 (330th globally) down to fifth in 2018 (448th globally), while UKZN (445th globally) maintained its score, but moved up to third on the local rankings.

Two South African universities also saw two major climbs in the global rankings, with the University of Pretoria moving up 288 places to rank 438th, and the University of Johannesburg climbed 161 places to rank 790th.

Rankings

The CWUR focuses on measurable data, specifically how many university alumni and faculty members have won international awards, and who currently hold top executive jobs. The ranking also assesses published research and citations, as well as metrics like patents.

For the 2018/19 edition of the CWUR Rankings, 18,000 higher education institutions were evaluated, among which only the best 1,000 research-intensive universities received a ranking.

Here is the full breakdown of its indicators:

• Quality of Education, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals relative to the university’s size (15%)
• Alumni Employment, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have held CEO positions at the world’s top companies relative to the university’s size (15%)
• Quality of Faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals (15%)
• Research Output, measured by the the total number of research papers (15%)
• Quality Publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals (15%)
• Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (15%)
• Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers (10%)