Cape Town leads Africa university rankings

The University of Cape Town has maintained its upward trend in the annual QS World University Rankings, moving up four places to 141 place for the 2014/2015 ranking cycle.

Next highest of the South African institutions, was the University of The Witwatersrand (318), followed by Stellenbosch University (390).

The universities of Pretoria, Kwazulu-Natal, Rhodes and Johannesburg took lower placings.

QS Rankings compare the top 800 institutions around the globe, looking at criteria related to research, employability of graduates, teaching and international outlook.

UCT’s QS ranking has risen steadily over the last five years, achieving the following positions: 161 (2010), 156 (2011), 154 (2012), 145 (2013) and most recently, 141 for 2014/2015.

UCT’s faculties have also performed well: the university is ranked in the top 100 in the “Life Sciences and Medicine” area, and just outside the top 100 in “Arts and Humanities”.

UCT remains the top-ranked African university in the QS World University Rankings.

In June, the QS University Rankings: BRICS 2014 ranked UCT among the top 10 universities in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

While pleased with UCT's good performances on international rankings, Professor Danie Visser, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research at UCT, said in a statement they should be seen in context: "None of the rankings give a perfect view of a university. In particular, they do not take into account some of the crucial roles universities play developing countries. They do not, for instance, measure the extent of a university’s social engagement - its responsiveness to the communities around us and in the rest of Southern Africa - or the degree to which a university develops capacity in Africa, growing the next generation of researchers. Both of these are crucial to UCT’s mission".

However, a significant common factor in all rankings is the quality of research by an institution.

UCT currently has 34 A-rated researchers and more than 450 National Research Foundation rated researchers. The university also said it hosts 33 Chairs awarded by the Department of Science and Technology's South African Research Chairs Initiative. In 2013, UCT published more than 2,000 journal articles, 280 books and chapters in books, and more than 300 peer-reviewed conference proceedings.

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