{"id":863768,"date":"2026-06-17T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863768"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:43:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:43:59","slug":"only-one-university-in-south-africa-is-named-among-the-top-150-in-the-world-in-new-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/863768\/only-one-university-in-south-africa-is-named-among-the-top-150-in-the-world-in-new-ranking\/","title":{"rendered":"Only one university in South Africa named among the top 150 in the world in new ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

US News has published its new 2026\/27 Best Global Universities<\/a><\/strong> ranking, which includes 15 South African universities that made the global top 2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, among the 15 ranked South African universities, the top performers largely improved their global positioning, with nine institutions climbing the rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes the University of Cape Town, which again topped the local rankings<\/strong><\/a>, remaining the only South African university in the top 150 at 122nd overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is followed by the University of the Witwatersrand, representing another South African university in the top 250, ranking 240th overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The universities of Johannesburg and Stellenbosch have entered the top 300, ranked 281st and 299th, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the University of Johannesburg has maintained its third-place spot in the local rankings, after climbing above Stellenbosch in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best Global Universities rankings evaluate more than 2,250 schools on academic research and reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rankings place specific emphasis on a university’s reputation, which is based on the quality of its publications and how they are cited globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the 2026 ranking listed 15 South African universities, the same as in 2025, there were two changes in the local listing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Pretoria has improved above the University of KwaZulu-Natal, taking its spot as the fifth-highest ranked university on the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower down on the list, the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University\u2014which debuted in the 2025 ranking\u2014continued to improve, rising above the Tshwane University of Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local rank<\/strong><\/td>2025<\/strong><\/td>2026<\/strong><\/td>University<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
1-<\/td>124<\/td>122<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of Cape Town<\/td><\/tr>
2-<\/td>265<\/td>240<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of the Witwatersrand<\/td><\/tr>
3-<\/td>319<\/td>281<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of Johannesburg<\/td><\/tr>
4-<\/td>322<\/td>299<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>Stellenbosch University<\/td><\/tr>
5\u2303<\/mark><\/td>460<\/td>417<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of Pretoria<\/td><\/tr>
6\u2304<\/mark><\/td>424<\/td>421<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of KwaZulu-Natal<\/td><\/tr>
7-<\/td>588<\/td>588<\/td>North West University<\/td><\/tr>
8-<\/td>714<\/td>657<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of the Western Cape<\/td><\/tr>
9-<\/td>869<\/td>770<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of South Africa<\/td><\/tr>
10-<\/td>974<\/td>1049<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>University of the Free State<\/td><\/tr>
11-<\/td>1028<\/td>1174<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>Rhodes University<\/td><\/tr>
12-<\/td>1259<\/td>1410<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>Nelson Mandela University<\/td><\/tr>
13-<\/td>1456<\/td>1569<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>Durban University of Technology<\/td><\/tr>
14\u2303<\/mark><\/td>1849<\/td>1721<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University<\/td><\/tr>
15\u2304<\/mark><\/td>1463<\/td>1888<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>Tshwane University of Technology<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The methodology<\/a> for the US News ranking assesses universities on 13 indicators to determine and measure global research performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These 13 indicators and their weights in the ranking formula can be found below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranking indicator <\/strong><\/td>Weight<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Global research reputation<\/td>12.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Regional research reputation<\/td>12.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Publications<\/td>10%<\/td><\/tr>
Books<\/td>2.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Conferences<\/td>2.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Normalized citation impact<\/td>10%<\/td><\/tr>
Total citations<\/td>7.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Number of publications that are among the 10% most cited<\/td>12.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited<\/td>10%<\/td><\/tr>
Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% of most highly cited papers<\/td>5%<\/td><\/tr>
International collaboration<\/td>5%<\/td><\/tr>
Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited in their respective field<\/td>5%<\/td><\/tr>
Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% most highly cited papers<\/td>5%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US News has published its new 2026\/27 Best Global Universities ranking, which includes 15 South African universities that made the global top 2,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":828313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[10600,7137,17561],"class_list":["post-863768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-best-global-universities","tag-university","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863768"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863781,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863768\/revisions\/863781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}