The University of Cape Town has made it into the top 10 of the QS University Rankings: BRICS, which compares the top 200 institutions in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Although South African universities are the best in on the African continent, only 11 of the 200 institutions surveyed in the new ranking are from South Africa – although they account for almost half of the country’s universities.
China claims six of the top 10 places, ahead of Brazil (two), Russia (one) and South Africa (one). Russia, with 53 institutions in the top 200, is second only to China (71). Yet only seven Russian institutions make the top 50, fewer China (21), Brazil (10), and India (nine).
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has moved into the BRICS top 10, thanks to its high ratio of citations per academic paper that was superior to any of the universities represented in this year’s rankings, in this indicator, among the five countries.
“UCT also scored well on number of international students and faculty, and in the academic reputation indicator,” notes QS head of research, Ben Sowter.
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has overtaken Stellenbosch University, which is South Africa’s other representative in the top 40 of the new BRICS ranking, at number 31.
The relatively low proportion of academics holding PhDs is another factor that holds South African universities back in this ranking. None of the country’s universities reaches the top 100 on this measure. Several South African universities score well on the measures of international activity: Wits is in the top five for its proportion of international faculty, while UCT is in the top 10 for both international faculty and students.
Stellenbosch University comes in at 34, the University of Pretoria ranks at 46, University of KwaZulu-Natal is number 60, University of Johannesburg is at 65, Rhodes University at 76 and University of the Western Cape at 92. The University of the Free State and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University also come into the Top 200.