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It has been a tough past year or so for education, with educators and students scuttling around to figure out all the technology and apps needed to make distance learning possible.

At a tertiary level, the pressure is really on.

Not only because at that stage, the expectations for learning and producing is much higher, but because the cost of attending university, especially a renowned one, can leave no room for error.

This week, US News & World Report released its 2022 ranking of the best global universities around the world, marking its eighth annual ranking.

As you can imagine, universities that were at the top of the global ranking before these ‘unprecedented times’ are, ding ding, still at the top.

Eight of the top 10 institutions are in the US, with two in the UK.

As for our massive continent, the University of Cape Town is still considered the best institution in Africa, with five other universities in the country ranked among the top 500 in the world.

But first, here’s more about how the ranking works via CNBC:

The 2022 ranking assesses 1 750 institutions from more than 90 countries across 13 different metrics, including research reputation, faculty publications and international collaboration.

“These rankings stand out from our other education rankings due to their emphasis on academic research,” says Robert Morse, chief data strategist at US News in a statement.

“The Best Global Universities feature an overall ranking of more than 1 700 universities, as well as subject rankings of additional 255 universities, for a total of 2 005 schools, providing even more information for prospective students interested in schools where research is a top priority.”

Here’s the full list of the top 10 best overall global universities of 2022:

1. Harvard University – Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
3. Stanford University – Stanford, California, US
4. University of California, Berkeley – California, US
5. University of Oxford – UK
6. Columbia University – New York, US
7. University of Washington, Seattle – US
8. University of Cambridge – UK
9. California Institute of Technology (tie) – California, US
9. Johns Hopkins University (tie) – Maryland, US

Alright, back to South Africa.

BusinessTech reported that 13 of our universities featured in the top 1 500, and six in the top 500.

UCT is still top but did drop a bit overall, from 103rd to 109th.

Placed second, is the University of Witwatersrand, which was ranked at 212th, 10 spots down from last year.

Likewise, with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Johannesburg, which slid to 371st and 417th, respectively.

The six universities that are within the global top 500 out of the 13 ranked in South Africa, are:

• University of Cape Town (109)
• University of Witwatersrand (212)
• Stellenbosch University (317)
• University of KwaZulu-Natal (371)
• University of Johannesburg (417)
• University of Pretoria (434)

Decent going, South Africa.

[sources:businesstech&cnbc]