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The Jammie stairs (sans the statue of Cecil Rhodes), rugby lawns, and Chancellor Oppenheimer Library are still doing well to maintain the Best University in South Africa title.

That’s right, the University of Cape Town (UCT) has once again been named the best University in the country according to the latest QS World University Rankings.

In fact, UCT jumped ahead 64 places since the previous edition of the rankings, ensuring it doesn’t lose its top spot to any other South African institution.

Per Cape Town ETC, the 2024 QS World University Rankings examine 1 500 institutions across 104 locations, with results based on over 17 million academic papers and expert opinions from nearly 250 000 academic faculty and employers.

The 2024 edition expanded on its methodological approach and features three new metrics: Sustainability, Employment Outcomes and International Research Network.

The rankings flagged employability as an incredibly important feature to the overall study. It achieved this by increasing the weight of Employer Reputation Employment Outcomes in the overall score.

UCT Vice-Chancellor Daya Reddy told BusinessTech that “UCT is delighted to record such an impressive jump in the rankings”, adding that “We are particularly pleased to see this new recognition of our international collaborations [for which UCT ranked in the top 50 institutions globally], together with recognition in the new category of social and environmental impact.”

“Both are critical to our mission to create and teach the best of knowledge and, in so doing, to contribute towards addressing complex and critical challenges facing our country, our continent, and the world at large. The introduction of employment outcomes is also especially welcome in a country like South Africa, where higher education institutions have a critical role to play in addressing the vital need to increase employment opportunities.”

Some of our other universities also climbed a little in the ranking with Wits jumping from 428 in 2023 to 264 in 2024, whilst Stellebosch University hopped from 454 to 283.

Ag lekker. Check out the top 10 universities in South Africa according to the QS World University Rankings:

Image: CapeTownETC

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA (100), the University of Cambridge in the UK (99.2), and the University of Oxford in the UK (98.9) make up the top three best universities in the world, with America’s Harvard University (98.3) and Stanford University (98.1) rounding out the top five.

[source:capetownetc]