UCT ranked among top 1.4% globally

Published today, the Center for World University Rankings’ (CWUR) list for 2020/21, which assesses 20 000 institutions globally, has ranked the University of Cape Town (UCT) as top on the continent, as well as 268th overall. This places UCT among the top 1.4% of universities globally.

In its latest list for 2020/21, the CWUR ranks UCT as 268th in the world, maintaining the university’s position at the top in the country and on the continent; however, the university has dropped 16 places compared to the previous year’s rankings, in which it ranked 252nd.

The drop in places is largely because rankings are relative; they therefore do not necessarily reflect a change in the outputs measured, but rather a greater improvement in scoring for other universities, which can lead to a relative drop in performance.

The leading three universities according to the new CWUR list were the same as last year: Harvard University followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University (all in the United States).

CWUR methodology

The CWUR annually assesses thousands of the world’s universities in terms of the quality of their education and training, faculty members and research. In this 2020/21 edition, it evaluated 20 000 universities, of which only the best 2 000 received a ranking.

To do this, the CWUR uses seven indicators:

1. Quality of education (25%): the number of alumni who have won major academic distinctions relative to the university’s size
2. Alumni employment (25%): the number of alumni who have held top executive positions at the world’s largest companies relative to the university’s size
3. Quality of faculty (10%): the number of faculty members who have won major academic distinctions
4. Research performance, made up of four indicators (each 10%):
   1. Research output: the number of research articles
   2. High-quality publications: the number of research articles in top-tier journals
   3. Influence: the number of research articles in highly influential journals
   4. Citations: the number of highly cited research articles

Review the Center for World University Rankings’ 2020/21 list.

Read more about the methodology used by the Center for World University Rankings.