US News & World Report has released its 2019 Best Global Universities rankings – which also includes a list of the top 10 Universities in South Africa.
The overall rankings evaluate 1,250 universities across 75 countries and are the largest and most comprehensive assessment of research universities worldwide, it says.
Universities in the US and the UK remained at the top of the rankings, with the top four schools in the US – led by Harvard University, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. The University of California–Berkeley takes the fourth spot, and the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford finishes out the top five Universities in the world.
Bringing it down to Africa, The University of Cape Town leads the Africa rankings, with two other South African institutions, University of Witwatersrand and University of KwaZulu Natal in second and third position.
Top Universities in South Africa:
University of Cape Town
SA Rank: 1
Global Rank: 114
University of Witwatersrand
SA Rank: 2
Global Rank: 197
University of Kwa-Zulu Natal
SA Rank: 3
Global Rank: 336
Stellenbosch University
SA Rank: 4
Global Rank: 341
University of Johannesburg
SA Rank: 5
Global Rank: 397
University of Pretoria
SA Rank: 6
Global Rank: 427
North-West University
SA Rank: 7
Global Rank: 708
University of the Western Cape
SA Rank: 8
Global Rank: 720
Rhodes University
SA Rank: 9
Global Rank: 886
University of South Africa
SA Rank: 10
Global Rank: 946
US News & World Report
US News’ rankings put a focus on international collaboration at universities by rewarding schools that author articles with researchers from different countries.
The Best Global Universities methodology – which is based on Web of Science data and metrics provided by Clarivate Analytics InCites – weighs factors that measure a university’s global and regional research reputation and academic research performance.
For the overall rankings, this includes bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration. Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance and reputation in that specific area.
