The University of Cape Town (UCT) retains its spot at the highest-ranked African university, at 267th position (up three places from last year) by the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) in their 2023 Global 2000 list.
CWUR released the largest academic ranking of global universities yesterday (15 May 2023). Out of the 20 531 institutions assessed, only the top 2 000 received a ranking, which places UCT in the top 1,4% of universities globally.
This ranking uses seven indicators grouped into four areas.
The firstis education, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have earned significant academic achievements, relative to its size (25%).
Employability, measured by the number of its alumni who have held top executive positions in the largest global companies, relative to the size of the university (25%) is another factor.
It also considers faculty, measured by the number of faculty members who have received top academic distinctions (10%).
The research component, which counts for 40%, includes the following criteria:
* Research output, measured by the total number of research articles (10%);
* High-quality publications, measured by the number of research articles appearing in top-tier journals (10%);
* Influence, measured by the number of research articles published in highly-influential journals (10%); and
* Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research articles (10%).
UCT’s highest ranked indicator is quality of education, which at 182nd position was down four places from last year. The alumni employment indicator (placed 224th) performed well and continued its climb, moving up 13 places compared to last year, which was up 23 places on the previous year. The research performance indicator (ranked 245th) improved by five places compared to last year.