South Africa’s top 10 universities score well in emerging economies ranking
China has increased its dominance in Times Higher Education’s latest ranking focused on developing countries, but South Africa and Saudi Arabia outshine the country based on average performance.
China has 14 institutions in the top 30 of the THE Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020, up from 12 in 2019. Tsinghua University remains number one, while Peking University is second, Zhejiang University is third and the University of Science and Technology of China is fourth.
Russia, Taiwan and South Africa are the only other territories that feature in the top 10.
China is also the most-represented nation overall, with 81 institutions, against India’s 56 and Brazil’s 46.
More than 530 universities feature in this year’s table – almost 100 more than last year – hailing from 47 countries, up from 43.
The Times Higher Education Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020 includes only institutions in countries classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as “advanced emerging”, “secondary emerging” or “frontier”.
South Africa
South Africa is the top performer based on countries’ average overall score among institutions in the top 200, Times Higher Education said.
It achieved an average score of 41.3 out of 100, while Saudi Arabia, which joined the ranking for the first time after gaining “secondary emerging” status in the FTSE list last year, is second with a score of 40.3. Mainland China is third with a score of 39.3.
The University of Cape Town, with 57.6 points, was ranked as the 10th best university, and the top South African institution. It was closely followed by the University of the Witwatersrand (11th overall), and Stellenbosch University was the third best local university, placing 24th overall.
Only institutions with at least five universities were included in the analysis, THE pointed out.
The Emerging Economies University Rankings is based on the same 13 performance indicators used for the THE World University Rankings, but the weightings are different to reflect the development priorities of universities in emerging economies.
| # | University | No. of Students | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | University of Cape Town | 21 812 | 57.6 |
| 11 | University of the Witwatersrand | 28 521 | 55.5 |
| 24 | Stellenbosch University | 24 308 | 45.5 |
| 54 | University of KwaZulu Natal | 36 660 | 39.4 |
| 109 | North-West University | 36 749 | 33.6 |
| 115 | University of the Western Cape | 21 999 | 33.2 |
| 118 | University of Johannesburg | 26 445 | 33.1 |
| 124 | University of Pretoria | 35 086 | 32.5 |
| 251-300 | University of South Africa | 193 874 | 22.7 – 24.9 |
| 251-300 | Tshwane University of Technology | 45 992 | 22.7 – 24.9 |
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