The 1 250 best universities in the world—and Unisa makes the cut

US News & World Report has released the 2018 Best Global Universities rankings, including the top tertiary learning institutions in South Africa.

The overall rankings evaluate 1 250 universities—up from 1,000 last year—across 74 countries and are the largest and most comprehensive assessment of research universities worldwide, it says.

The US leads the rankings again this year, with 221 universities making the overall list. The top four spots are held by US schools, with Harvard University placing first. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology comes in second, followed by Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley. The United Kingdom’s University of Oxford rounds out the top five.

For South Africa, the University of Cape Town sits just outside the top 100, followed by the University of Witwatersrand, which placed 216th overall. Unisa is placed 11^th in SA and 28^th in Africa.

Behind the US, the following countries have the most ranked institutions out of the 1,250 schools on the overall list:

China: 136

Japan: 76

UK: 73

Germany: 58

For the 2018 edition, US News made a slight change to the methodology to further emphasise international collaboration at universities by rewarding schools that author articles with researchers from different countries.

The Best Global Universities methodology—which is based on Web of Science data and metrics provided by Clarivate Analytics InCites—weighs factors that measure a university’s global and regional research reputation and academic research performance.

For the overall rankings, this includes bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration. Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance and reputation in that specific area.

2018 U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities

Overall Best Global Universities – Top 10

1. Harvard University (U.S.)
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.)
3. Stanford University (U.S.)
4. University of California—Berkeley (U.S.)
5. University of Oxford (U.K.)
6. California Institute of Technology (U.S.)
7. University of Cambridge (U.K.)
8. Columbia University (U.S.)
9. Princeton University (U.S.)
10. Johns Hopkins University (U.S.) (tie)
10. University of Washington (U.S.) (tie)
10. Yale University (U.S.) (tie)

Africa – Top 5
1. University of Cape Town (South Africa)
2. University of Witwatersrand (South Africa)
3. University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa)
4. Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
5. Cairo University (Egypt)

Asia – Top 5
1. National University of Singapore
2. Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
3. University of Tokyo (Japan)
4. Tsinghua University (China)
5. Peking University (China)

Australia/New Zealand – Top 5
1. University of Melbourne (Australia)
2. University of Sydney
3. University of Queensland Australia
4. Monash University (Australia)
5. Australian National University (tie)
5. University of New South Wales (tie)

Europe – Top 5
1. University of Oxford (U.K.)
2. University of Cambridge (U.K.)
3. Imperial College London
4. University College London
5. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland)

Latin America – Top 5
1. University of São Paulo (Brazil)
2. Pontificia University Católica de Chile
3. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
4. University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
5. State University of Campinas (Brazil)

*Compiled by Sharon Farrell

Source UNISA