It is estimated that there are 20,000 universities globally, South Africa has 26.
There are a number of agencies which rank universities; The QS Survey, The Times Higher Education Survey and the Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) to name a few.
The CWUR grades universities on four factors without relying on surveys and university data submissions: quality of education (25%), alumni employment (25%), quality of faculty (10%), and research performance (40%).
This year, 19,788 institutions were ranked, and those that placed at the top made the global 2,000 list.
SA Position
Thirteen universities from South Africa feature in the 2021-2022 list of the top 2,000 universities (CWUR). Statistically 13 of our Universities are in the top 10% globally and 7 in the top 5%. They are led by the University of Cape Town, ranked 269th globally, and followed by the University of the Witwatersrand at 292nd. Stellenbosch University, University of KwaZulu-Natal, and the University of Pretoria round up the top five universities in South Africa, with the University of Johannesburg ranked sixth (See table below)