The University of Cape Town and Wits University are in the top 10 of the Brics and Emerging Economies University Rankings 2017. This is according to the World University Rankings 2016-2017 report, a global university performance table that judges world-class universities across all their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.The 2017 rankings were expanded to 300 institutions, compared with 200 last year, including 24 from Russia.UCT is in fourth place and Wits is placed sixth in the rankings. The two universities occupied the same positions in last year's rankings.China's Peking and Tsinghua universities took the No1 and No2 spots, as they did last year. Russia's Lomonosov Moscow State University took third place, whereas its Saint Petersburg State University is ranked 37th.India is, according to the rankings, also making great strides, with the country's flagship university, Indian Institute of Science, breaking into the top 15 for the first time this year, earning the No 14 spot."In fact, India could soon overtake Taiwan as the second most-represented country in the top 200 of the table, behind China."Overall, India has 19 universities in the top 200, up from 16 last year, while Taiwan has 21, down from 24," said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.Universities in Latvia, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Northern Cyprus, the Philippines and Sri Lanka entered the rankings for the first time this year.Baty said only the best institutions were ranked."Institutions must demonstrate high standards of performance across teaching, research, international outlook and knowledge transfer and compete with other leading research universities across emerging economy countries."He said while India and Taiwan had improved their standing, the performance of the other Brics nations was waning, "largely due to increased competition"...