New global rankings reveal South Africa’s top universities

The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy has released its 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), listing the world’s top 1,000 universities, including South Africa’s highest-ranked institutions.

BusinessTech reports that eight South African universities made the list, though their overall performance declined from last year.

While no local university entered the global top 100, three secured spots within the top 500.

South Africa’s top three performers

The ARWU ranks among the most influential global university lists, placing strong emphasis on research performance and academic reputation. It evaluates institutions using six key indicators:

• Alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%)
• Staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%)
• Highly cited researchers across 21 subject categories (20%)
• Publications in Nature and Science (20%)
• Papers indexed in major citation indexes (20%)
• Per capita academic performance (10%)

The University of Cape Town (UCT), ranked in the 201–300 range, maintains its position as the country’s top university.

This year, however, it shares the spot with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), which moved up from the 301–400 range to join UCT in the same tier.

Stellenbosch University, placed in the 401–500 range, holding steady compared to 2024.

The eight South African institutions in the top 1 000 were as follows: