UCT and Stellenbosch University (SU) have been lauded as one of the best emerging economy universities in Africa.
UCT announced that it had ranked in the top 10 worldwide among universities in countries with emerging economies, according to the 2021 Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings.
While SU ranked number 23 out of 606 institutions from 48 countries or regions classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as “advanced emerging”, “secondary emerging” or “frontier”.
UCT maintained its position from last year and remains the top-performing institution from Africa while SU have been on an upward trend improving steadily from being number 42 in 2017.
UCT vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said: “This helps demonstrate our continued excellence internationally – despite the particular challenges universities in emerging economies face.
“We can also be proud of our performance as a country: South Africa has once again shown the strength of its higher education sector, and this is even more remarkable given its relatively modest funding from the government.”
SU’s deputy vice-chancellor for strategy and internationalisation Professor Hester Klopper said the improvement in ranking underscores one of the university’s core strategic themes, namely “research for impact”.
“The fact that Stellenbosch is able to improve its ranking during the Covid-19 pandemic is no mean feat.
“While we are cognisant of the importance of rankings in the overall perception of an institution’s (global) academic and research standing, our focus is on academic and research excellence that will shape a better world for all.
“It is, however, hugely gratifying when we gain international recognition in our quest to deliver solutions to societal problems through world-class research and scientific programmes,” said Hester.
This year’s rankings saw an increase of 14% in the number of universities analysed, from 533 last year to 606 this year. The top five positions were swooped by institutions in China.
According to THE, universities were ranked according to their core missions of teaching (the learning environment), research (volume, income and reputation), knowledge transfer (industry income) and international outlook (staff, students and research) to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons.
SU came in third position among South African universities.