The top 4 universities in South Africa
The Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has released its 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), presenting the world’s top 500 universities – including four South African institutions.
For the 13th year in a row, Harvard University in the USA was ranked as the world’s top university, claiming the top spot in many of the fields covered in the ranking (including life sciences, medicine, social sciences and economics).
The rest of the top 10 universities remain virtually unchanged from previous years, with Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Cambridge, Princeton, Caltech, Columbia, Chicago and Oxford all retaining their exact ranking from 2014.
As was the case in 2014, only four South African universities are listed in the top 500, and none within the top 200.
The University of Cape Town is ranked as the top university in the country, followed by Wits – both featuring in the top 300.
The University of KwaZulu Natal is ranked 3rd and Stellenbosch University is ranked 4th, with both the latter two universities featuring between 401st and 500th on the list.
South African universities
| # | University | 2014 Score | 2015 Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Cape Town | 15.76 | 16.52 |
| 2 | University of the Witwatersrand | 15.16 | 15.34 |
| 3 | University of Kwa-Zulu Natal | 10.50 | 10.87 |
| 4 | Stellenbosch University | 9.90 | 10.11 |
The Shanghai rankings work by assigning the highest scoring institution (Harvard) a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score.
An institution’s rank reflects the number of institutions that sit above it.
As with all university rankings, the Shanghai ranking weighs category scores differently, though relatively more evenly than other rankings.
- 10% – Alumni – Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals;
- 20% – Awards – Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals;
- 20% – HiCi – Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories;
- 20% – N&S – Papers published in Nature and Science;
- 20% – PUB – Papers in Science Citation and Social Science Citation Indices;
- 10% – PCP – Per capita academic performance of an institution.
Overall, both UCT and Wits improved on their general scores, with all listed SA universities seeing improvements in the number of papers cited in science and social science indices as well as academic performance.
However, UCT is the only university to see improvements in the number of papers published in the nature and science fields.
University category scores
| Indicator | Weight | UCT | Wits | UKZN | Stellies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alumni | 10% | 18.5 | 18.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Awards | 20% | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| HiCi | 20% | 12.2 | 7.1 | 3.6 | 5.0 |
| N&S | 20% | 11.5 | 15.8 | 8.4 | 5.3 |
| PUB | 20% | 37.3 | 33.0 | 32.8 | 31.2 |
| PCP | 10% | 20.8 | 19.5 | 16.6 | 15.7 |
| Total | 100% | 16.52 | 15.34 | 10.87 | 10.11 |
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) singles out citations and research done in the sciences as a headline indicator.
It joins other international rankings, including the most recently released Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), which places emphasis on university alumni and faculty members which have won international awards, and who currently hold top executive jobs.
Other global rankings, such as the QS World University Rankings (QSWUR) look at indicators such as university “reputation”, or at performance in a specific field.
The Times Higher Education (THE) ranking is the only global published listing of universities that gives equal sway to teaching, research and citations – downplaying reputation and alumni industry activity.
The QSWUR and THE rankings for 2015 will be released in September, with the Best Global Universities rankings following in October.
More on SA universities
Best university in South Africa rankings
South Africa’s alarming university drop out rate
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