South African universities have received favourable rankings in a survey of about 77000 academics. The QS World University Rankings by Subject‚ released today on TopUniversities.com‚ gave South African universities 21 top-100 places in their tables‚ six more than in last year’s edition.Rating universities for their expertise in specific subjects‚ four SA universities are in the top fifty‚ while the University of Cape Town ranks in the top ten for Development Studies.As many as of 76‚798 academics and 44‚426 employers were canvassed in the survey.Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continue to dominate‚ leading in 24 subjects between them.The University of Cape Town got the highest rating in SA‚ for Development Studies (in joint 9th place). Wit University also rated highly in the same subject.The QS statement said: “South African universities are also acknowledged by QS as having improved their research impact. The average score for South African universities in both of the the two metrics used to measure this indicator of university performance - citations per faculty and h-index -has increased year-on-year. The average employer reputation score of South Africa’s universities also increases by nearly two percentage points‚ while the average academic reputation score increases by a fraction of a percentage point.”The following table reflects SA universities' performances:QS World University Rankings by Subject: South Africa University Number of Subject Tables ranked in University of Cape Town 31University of the Witwatersrand 17 University of Pretoria 11 Stellenbosch University 9 University of Johannesburg 4 University of Kwazulu-Natal 3 Rhodes University 2 University of the Western Cape 1 QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2016 Worldwide Top Universities rankings ..