The standards of South African universities will continue to drop unless there is increased investment in brain power.

So said education experts after the QS world university rankings for this year were released this week.

The only South African university to be included in the list of the 200 best in the world was the University of Cape Town, which came in at 161. It was in 146th position last year, when it was the only African university listed.

Wits University, Johannesburg, came in at 321 last year and did not get into the top 200 this year.

More than 2500 universities were evaluated. The criteria were the number of foreign students attracted, employers' opinions on the quality of graduates and academics' ratings of universities. The academics polled were not allowed to favour their own institutions.

Professor Kobus Maree, of the education faculty of the University of Pretoria, said South African universities were "tied up on things that will not improve rankings".

"It seems as if our universities don't understand the rules of the game.

"If you identify top people, then provide them with sufficient funding, time, space and resources they can network and set up collaborations with other top people from around the world to come here and share their expertise," he said.

"People who have made their mark and are revered globally - those are the people who must be at our universities and they must be lecturing. If they want R1-million [salary], it is fine, pay them that."

UCT declined to comment on the results as it was still "reviewing the survey and research methodology".

Wits University vice-chancellor Professor Loyiso Nongxa was "out of town" and could not comment.

The survey noted: "Higher education institutions can be very different from one another, but maintain there is validity in comparing one against another as they usually have a certain number of common objectives - most include the pursuit of cutting-edge research and the education of first-rate students."

DA education spokesman and former academic Wilmot James said there needed to be better strategies to attract better lecturers, and in turn, better students to South African universities.

"The point is, we're not building our universities to get into the rankings. It is not easy and, yes, it takes a while, but one needs to plan. Are there enough brains, is there enough money, and is the infrastructure support there?" he said.

"There is little wrong with our infrastructure. We're spending a lot of money. The question is the brain power.

"We must invest in people - that's our weakest point. If we doubled the money lecturers make, that would do wonders. Once you get top brains to teach, you attract the best students."

The Higher Education ministry was unavailable for comment yesterday.

THE WORLD'S TOP UNIVERSITIES

1.Cambridge University, UK (last year's No2)

2.Harvard University, US (last year's No1)

3.Yale University, US (unchanged)

4.University College London, UK, (unchanged)

5.Massachusetts Institute of Technology US, (last year's No 9)

6. Oxford University, UK, (last year's No5)

7. Imperial College London, UK, (tied for fifth place last year)

8. University of Chicago, US, (last year's No7)

9. California Institute of Technology, US, (last year's No10)

10.Princeton University, US, (last year's No8)

161.University of Cape Town, SA, (last year in 146th position)