- The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 rank University of Cape Town (UCT) the best university in Africa.
- The biggest scorer for the university was in citations.
- African universities improved overall by 1.2 points between 2022 and 2023 compared to the global average of 0.7 points.
This week Time Higher Education released its World University Rankings for 2023.
The rankings assess universities, 1 799 to be precise, on 13 indicators that are grouped into five areas, each weighted differently in terms of how much it impacts the overall score.
These five areas are:
- Teaching – 30 percent,
- Research – 30 percent,
- Citations – 30 percent,
- International outlook – 7.5 percent,
- Industry income – 2.5 percent.
You can read more about what these areas combine and the methodology of the rankings here.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) placed 160th of the 1 799 universities. This puts UCT at the top of the pile on the African continent.
UCT’s strongest performing area was in citations which measured the number of times a piece of research is cited.
“It is gratifying to see UCT’s reputation in both research and in teaching and learning grow, recognition of the important role African institutions are playing in the global knowledge project as institutions the world over address the grand challenges,” said UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng in a statement.
What is interesting to note is that according to Times Higher Education, citations were the biggest scorers across the African continent. The score for citations on the continent increased from 45.3 to 47.7.
While this is good news, we do need to dull the party a little. Education Research in Sub-Saharan Africa: Quality, Visibility, and Agendas published in 2020 found that publications co-authored in Sub-Saharan Africa with researchers based outside the region were significantly more likely to be cited than publications which didn’t involve researchers based outside of the region.
That analysis also found that predominantly English speaking countries tend to dominate the rankings in terms of the quantity of publications that are produced.
“Research is often influenced by the funder, and research collaborations can be dominated by Northern partners. This can mean research is driven by external agendas and not national contexts,” the research read.
However, the overall score for African universities in the Times Higher Education Rankings improved 1.2 points between 2022 and 2023 compared to the global average of 0.7 points.
It’s great to see African universities moving up the ranks in the eyes of the world and hopefully this increased visibility helps other institutions grow and reach new heights.
The rankings for the South African universities appear in the table below.
| University | Global Rank |
| University of Cape Town | 160 |
| Stellenbosch University | 251 – 300 |
| University of the Witwatersrand | 251 – 300 |
| University of KwaZulu-Natal | 401 – 500 |
| Durban University of Technology | 501 – 600 |
| University of Johannesburg | 601 – 800 |
| North-West University | 601 – 800 |
| University of the Western Cape | 601 – 800 |
| University of the Free State | 801 – 1000 |
| University of Pretoria | 801 – 1000 |
| Rhodes University | 801 – 1000 |
| University of South Africa | 1001 – 1200 |
| University of Fort Hare | 1201 – 1500 |
| Tshwane University of Technology | 1201 – 1500 |
| University of Venda | 1201 – 1500 |
| Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University | Reporter |
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
