The University of Witwatersrand has emerged as South Africa’s top university‚ according to the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
The rankings of the world’s top 500 universities are published annually by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. Selection is based on indicators such as the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals‚ the number of highly cited researchers and the number of articles published in select journals.
The two top spots were in the United States - Harvard and Stanford universities‚ followed by Cambridge in Britain in third place.
Wits University was ranked in the 201 to 300 category of top universities.
Other South African universities that made it onto the list also include the universities of Cape Town‚ Stellenbosch and Pretoria.
The rankings showed an improvement for the University of Pretoria‚ which this year moved into the top 500. But the University of Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu-Natal dropped off the list .
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