The best universities in South Africa in 2025

Webometrics published its global ranking of universities in 2025, with the University of Cape Town maintaining its top position and the University of Pretoria snapping up third place from Stellies.

The rankings were created and compiled by Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, the largest public research body in Spain.

They are updated twice a year and are based on the quality, quantity, and access to web content provided by universities.

The group noted that the ranking’s original aim was to promote Web publication, supporting open access initiatives and electronic access to scientific publications and other academic material.

Over the years, though, web indicators have become a useful ranking tool because they are not based on things like the number of visits or specific webpage design, but rather on the global performance and visibility of universities.

The group said that other rankings only focus on a handful of criteria, like citations and research results, arguing that web indicators provide a better ‘bigger picture’, taking into account many activities of professors and researchers which are only shown by their web presence.

Crucially, the ranking is based not only on the universities’ websites but also on their webometric (all missions) and bibliometric (research mission) indicators.

Webometrics said that the rankings are mainly based on three core indicators.

• Visibility: The number of external networks (subnets) linking to the institution’s web pages (weighted 50%)

• Transparency or Openness: The number of citations from the Top 310 authors, excluding the top 30 outliers (10%)

• Excellence: The number of papers amongst the top 10% most cited in each one of all 27 disciplines of the full database over the last five years (40%)

Because of its methodology and reach, the ranking is also able to assess a massive number of tertiary institutions, going beyond universities into colleges and technicians, et al.

The 2025 ranking listed over 31,360. We have focused only on the 26 public universities in South Africa. We have also compared the year-on-year results, looking at the global positioning in January 2024 vs January 2025.

Overall, the ranking for South Africa has remained fairly static with the University of Cape Town retaining its top position.

There were some shifts, however, with the University of Pretoria pipping Stellenbosch University for the third position.

Most universities (16 of 26) improved their global standings, including the top-ranked ones, which were all up from the start of 2024.

Eight universities in South Africa were ranked among the top 1000, but only the top four universities ranked among the top 500 in the overall listing.