Lifestyle

South Africa has a new number one university – the only one ranked in the top 200 globally

Staff Writer

 ·3 Jun 2026

The University of the Witwatersrand is the only South African university ranked among the top 200 tertiary institutions worldwide in the latest Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) for 2026.

The placement also positions the university as the number one in the country, overtaking the University of Cape Town, which has historically placed at the top of the local rankings.

Wits ranked 200 in the global ranking, which focuses on academic performance, employability of graduates, and research from over 20,000 universities across the world.

The university showed a remarkable climb on the list, jumping from 292nd place in 2025.

UCT, meanwhile, has fallen to second place in the local ranking and has also dropped in the global ranking, falling one position from 275th in 2025 to 276th in 2026—giving way to Wits.

However, it, along with Stellenbosch University, remains in the top 500, with the latter ranking 461st, down from 458th in 2025.

The CWUR flagged mixed performances by South Africa’s universities in the 2026 ranking, with five of the 12 local institutions that cracked the top 2000 improving compared to global peers.

Half the universities dropped down the rankings, and one remained the same.

This was a better performance than in 2025, when nine of 12 ranked universities all slipped down the global list.

Following Stellenbosch University, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and University of Pretoria rounded out the top five for South Africa.

The University of Johannesburg is quickly approaching this grouping, having been one of the five universities improving their positions and entering the top 600.

Another strong climber was the University of South Africa (Unisa), which, despite its troubles and scandals, has risen above others in the ranking.

The table below outlines the positioning in 2026.

Focus on academics and employability

The CWUR is one of the more comprehensive global university rankings, including more South African institutions than many other annuals.

The ranking itself grades universities on four factors, without relying on surveys and university data submissions. These include:

• Education (25%): Academic success of a university’s alumni, measured relative to the university’s size.
• Employability (25%): The professional success of a university’s alumni, measured relative to the university’s size.
• Faculty (10%): The number of faculty members who have received top academic distinctions.
• Research (40%): The number of papers, articles published in top-tier and influential journals, and a high number of citations.

For the 2026 ranking, the group analysed 81 million outcome-based data points and listed the top 2000 out of 21,291 institutions.

Looking at the top universities globally, the United States has eight representatives in the top 10 and is the second-most represented country in the top 2000, trailing China with 313 universities.

Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are the most cited universities in the world, and all Ivy League institutions feature in the top-75 this year.

Japan, led by the University of Tokyo in 13th place, has 102 top-2000 institutions.

The number of UK institutions in the top 2000 this year is 89. The University of Cambridge is the top public university in the world for the 13th year in a row.

France, led by PSL University at number 20, has 71 representatives in the top 2000. Russia, led by Moscow State University at number 264, features 42 institutions in the top 2000.

Elsewhere, the University of New South Wales ranks first in Oceania, the University of São Paulo tops Latin America, and the University of the Witwatersrand ranks highest in Africa.