{"id":192264,"date":"2017-08-15T08:22:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T06:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=192264"},"modified":"2017-11-01T11:07:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T09:07:03","slug":"wits-trumps-uct-for-the-second-time-in-global-university-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/192264\/wits-trumps-uct-for-the-second-time-in-global-university-ranking\/","title":{"rendered":"Wits trumps UCT for the second time in global university ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the University of Cape Town takes the crown in most of the global university rankings that are released each year, Wits University is still South Africa’s best institution in the eyes of the Shanghai rankings.<\/p>\n

The Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has released its 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)<\/a><\/strong>, presenting the world\u2019s top 500 universities \u2013 including five South African institutions.<\/p>\n

For the 15th year in a row, Harvard University in the US is ranked as the world\u2019s top university, claiming the top spot in many of the fields covered in the ranking.<\/p>\n

The 2017 ranking shows little change among South Africa’s institutions, but does mark the second year in a row that Wits has trumped the University of Cape Town on the list. It also marks the first time the University of Johannesburg has been featured in the ranking.<\/p>\n

Previously, Wits only managed to come out on top in the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), which it achieved for the third year in a row in 2016. The 2017 CWUR has not yet been published.<\/p>\n

The ARWU does not officially rank universities outside of the top 200, but provides given scores across all categories, which can be calculated into a total.<\/p>\n

Overall – excluding UJ, which made its debut on the list – half the ranked universities improved their position (Stellies and UKZN), and the other half dropped (Wits and UCT).<\/p>\n

Wits was ranked somewhere outside the top 200, but within the top 300 (201-300), UCT was within the next band (301-400) and the other listed South African Universities were within the final band (401-500).<\/p>\n

This is how South Africa’s top 5 universities ranked in the ARWU, locally.<\/p>\n

South African universities<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/th>\nUniversity<\/strong><\/th>\n2016 Score<\/strong><\/th>\n2017 Score<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nUniversity of the Witwatersrand<\/td>\n17.42<\/td>\n16.91<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nUniversity of Cape Town<\/td>\n16.53<\/td>\n14.70<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nStellenbosch University<\/td>\n11.25<\/td>\n11.82<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nUniversity of Johannesburg<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n10.94<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nUniversity of KwaZulu Natal<\/td>\n10.10<\/td>\n10.29<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Shanghai rankings work by assigning the\u00a0highest scoring institution\u00a0(Harvard)\u00a0a score of 100, and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top score.<\/p>\n

A university’s ranking reflects the number of institutions that sit above it.<\/p>\n

As with all university rankings, the Shanghai ranking weighs category scores differently, though relatively more evenly than other rankings.<\/p>\n