UCT first in Africa in the world rankings

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has retained the top spot in Africa on the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings released on Thursday, 2 September.

UCT continues to be the continent’s top university, tying with the University of Notre Dame (US) at 183rd place. More than 1 600 institutions were ranked in the 2022 THE World University Rankings, which is published once a year, assessing institutions worldwide across 13 performance indicators in five areas: teaching (30%), research (30%), citations (30%), international outlook (7.5%) and industry income (2.5%).

UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng noted that the attainment of the top spot on the continent has come during a particularly challenging period that included navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the UCT fire.

““We are pleased to note that UCT continues doing well in the international arena while continuing remaining the best in Africa.”

“Although the rankings are but just a gaze which does not fully indicate the impact of the university in other crucial areas such as social responsiveness, we are pleased to note that UCT continues doing well in the international arena while continuing remaining the best in Africa,” she said.

“[That] UCT continues to occupy … the various top-ranking bodies is a testament to the work done by our researchers, to the support staff and to each and everyone at UCT who works tirelessly to continue elevating this university to greater heights.”

UCT’s performance improved in the teaching category (the learning environment), jumping 23 places compared with the previous year. Good increases were achieved in the scores of the ratios of doctorate to bachelor awarded, doctorate awarded to academic staff and in the institutional income to academic staff.

In the research category (volume, income and reputation), scores increased for papers to academic staff and research income to academic staff, while in the international outlook category (international staff, students and research collaborations), the co-authorship score held steady, highlighting that UCT has sustained its collaborations with international partners.

UCT top in Africa in all 5 major rankings

Earlier this year, UCT also took the continent’s top place in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, the Centre for World University Rankings and more recently in the ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). UCT is also Africa’s top university in the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings, the most recent of which was issued in 2020 with the next release expected in October.

Read more about the THE World University Rankings 2022 methodology.

View the results of the THE World University Rankings 2022.