{"id":69987,"date":"2014-10-02T00:05:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T22:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=69987"},"modified":"2014-10-01T22:41:43","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T20:41:43","slug":"south-africas-best-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/69987\/south-africas-best-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s best universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has been ranked as the top university in South Africa according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015.<\/p>\n

UCT also improved its position on a global scale to 124th<\/strong> spot, up two positions from last year.<\/p>\n

UCT improved its overall score from 50.5, to 52.6<\/span>, although well below the best placed institutions who scored up to 94.3 points. The university scored really well in Industry income<\/span><\/strong>, and Citations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-2015 powered by Thomson Reuters, claims to be the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.<\/p>\n

The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) comes in a distant second in the SA rankings, placing between 251-275 <\/strong>globally, and therefore sliding down the ranks from its position of between 226-250<\/strong> in 2013\/2014.<\/p>\n

Wits scored highly in Industry income<\/span><\/strong> (94.8 points), with Teaching<\/strong>\u00a0 and Research<\/strong> letting it down.<\/p>\n

Stellenbosch University was the third and only other university to feature on the list of top 400 universities, ranking at between 276-300, <\/strong>climbing up from its position of between 301-350<\/strong> in the prior period.<\/p>\n

Maties also scored highly in Industry income<\/span><\/strong> (94.t points), but performed poorly in Teaching\u00a0 and Research.<\/p>\n

Top SA universities<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nUniversity<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
124<\/td>\nUniversity of Cape Town<\/td>\n52.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
251-275<\/td>\nUniversity of the Witwatersrand<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
276-300<\/td>\nStellenbosch University<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The Times Higher Education (THE) ranking is the fourth global ranking to be released this year, with the\u00a0QS World University Rankings (QSWUR)<\/a>, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)<\/a> and Center for World University Rankings (CWUR)<\/a> lists published previously.<\/p>\n

Each ranking uses different indicators with different final score weighting to determine the top institutes, and thus reflect different levels of excellence.<\/p>\n

The QSWUR places emphasis on academic reputations; the ARWU has a more even spread across its indicators, with a focus on published research; and the CWUR focuses on alumni and what they went on to achieve.<\/p>\n

Looking at the results of all four university rankings as a whole, it\u2019s clear that the University of Cape Town holds the top position in South Africa, overall, with only the CWUR rankings placing the institute second.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Wits is the clear number two, with Stellenbosch University ranking third.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nUniversity<\/strong><\/td>\nTHE SA rank<\/strong><\/strong> <\/td>\nARWU SA rank<\/strong><\/strong> <\/td>\nCWUR SA rank<\/strong><\/strong> <\/td>\nQSWUR SA rank<\/strong><\/strong> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nUniversity of Cape Town<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nUniversity of Witwatersrand<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nStellenbosch University<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nUniversity of Kwa-Zulu Natal<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nUniversity of Pretoria<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nRhodes University<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nUniversity of Johannesburg<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Global university rankings<\/h3>\n

California Institute of Technology took top honours for a fourth straight year ahead of Harvard University, with the US taking up seven of the top 10 spots.<\/p>\n

UK institutions filled the other three places, led by Oxford University, in third position.<\/p>\n

Morocco based, University of Marrakech Cadi Ayyad, was the only other institution in Africa to feature in the top 400. It ranked between 301-350<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Top 10 universities<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nUniversity<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nCaltech<\/td>\n94.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nHarvard University<\/td>\n93.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nUniversity of Oxford<\/td>\n93.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nStanford University<\/td>\n92.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nUniversity of Cambridge<\/td>\n92.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)<\/td>\n91.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nPrinceton University<\/td>\n90.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nUniversity of California, Berkeley<\/td>\n89.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nImperial College London<\/td>\n87.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nYale University<\/td>\n87.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

\u00a0Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Times Higher Education, the 13 performance indicators are grouped into five areas:<\/p>\n