South African universities under 50 years old did not feature in the world’s 50 best universities in that age group‚ which was issued by a global higher education think-tank in its latest ranking on Tuesday night.The ranking is designed to emphasise the potential and excellence of universities without decades or centuries of established reputation‚ and to identify which of them might disrupt‚ or had already disrupted‚ the global elite.The 2016/2017 ranking indicates that Asia and Australia are home to the world’s strongest recently-formed institutions.Other key findings from this year’s ranking include the fact that Nanyang Technological University from Singapore retains the number one position and that Asian institutions take all of the top six places.The ranking also showed that six of the top-10 places were taken by universities with a heavy STEM focus. STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science‚ technology‚ engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.Australia is the most-featured nation on the ranking‚ with its young universities taking 10 of the 50 available places; while 16 of the 50 available places go to Asian institutions.Europe is the most-featured continent‚ with 18 universities. However‚ Europe’s highest-ranked university is Maastricht University in the Netherlands.“The rankings suggest that young universities focussed on strong STEM-based research programmes stand the best chance of disrupting any established global elite‚” QS’s head of research Ben Sowter said. - TMG Digital ..