Three UCT subjects ranked in top 100

The University of Cape Town (UCT) was placed 81st for clinical and health, 92nd for education, and 100th for social sciences in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by subject. A further three UCT subjects ranked in the top 200.

“These subject rankings mirror the consistent, cutting-edge performance of our academics,” said Professor Sue Harrison, UCT’s deputy vice-chancellor for Research and Internationalisation. “The diversity and talent of our academics and research teams are among our greatest strengths, and much valued. Our performance in these subject rankings brings us closer to achieving our vision towards transformative excellence which is embedded in all that we do and resonates across our campuses.”

She added: “We are particularly pleased with our performance in clinical and health. We view it as one of the key indicators of our progress towards achieving the wide-ranging African Union Agenda 2063 goals and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically those that target improved well-being for citizens and reduced inequities in health. UCT research and clinical practice have a significant impact on both our knowledge base and societally; only some of this is captured by rankings such as this.”

THE issues exact positions for only the top 100 in each of its 11 subjects. Thereafter, universities are ranked in broad bands.

In the Top 100

• clinical and health at 81st position
• education at 92nd position (tied)
• social sciences at 100th position (tied).

In the Top 200

• life sciences in the 101–125 band
• law in the 126–150 band
• arts and humanities in the 176–200 band.

THE bases its subject rankings on the same 18 performance indicators used in their world university rankings, which are grouped into five main categories. New indicators were introduced this year and some names have been tweaked: teaching (the learning environment); research environment (volume, income and reputation); research quality (citation impact, research strength, research influence and research excellence – these metrics are based on various measures of citations, which are the number of times a publication is referred to); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (income and patents). However, the methodology is recalibrated for each subject with the weightings changed to suit the individual fields.

These subject rankings follow the publication of the THE’s 2024 World University Rankings in late September, in which UCT placed 167th.

QS subject rankings

Earlier this year, the 2023 QS World University Rankings by Subject placed UCT among the top 100 universities in four subjects: anthropology, and geography (both in the 51–100 band); medicine (94th); and development studies – UCT’s top subject (12th).

View the complete 2024 THE World University Rankings by subject and read about the methodologies (accessed from the subject pages).