The top 18 universities in South Africa ranked

 ·11 Aug 2016
University of Cape Town

A new university ranking that focuses on academic performance has been released, ranking 18 South African universities among 2,500 institutes across the world.

The University Ranking by Academic Performance (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.”

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

The URAP ranking system’s focus is on academic quality. The group has gathered data about 2,500 Higher Education Institutes (HEI) in an effort to rank these organizations by their academic performance.

The overall score of each HEI is based upon 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.

The data holds no big surprises for South Africa, naming the University of Cape Town as the top university in the country – followed by all the usual suspects: Wits, UKZN and Stellenbosch University.

However, the ranking includes 18 South African universities, overall, making it the most comprehensive global university ranking in the country to date.

These are the top universities in the country:

SA # Global University Score
1 237 University of Cape Town 342.74
2 312 University of the Witwatersrand 330.54
3 369 University of KwaZulu Natal 324.98
4 405 Stellenbosch University 322.05
5 490 University of Pretoria 316.25
6 676 University of Johannesburg 308.57
7 818 North West University 304.61
8 900 University of the Western Cape 302.04
9 1049 Rhodes University 280.78
10 1071 University of the Free State 277.25
11 1248 University of South Africa (Unisa) 224.47
12 1357 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (Port Elizabeth) 190.98
13 1358 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (George) 190.84
14 1491 Tshwane University of Technology 153.00
15 1810 Cape Peninsula University of Technology 79.69
16 1815 University of Limpopo 78.75
17 1879 University of Fort Hare 67.68
18 1901 Durban University of Technology 63.56

More on universities

The best universities in South Africa

Wits University ranked top in South Africa in 2016

This is South Africa’s most globally attractive university

Show comments
Subscribe to our daily newsletter