Durban - The University of Cape Town has been named South Africa's best university, according to global education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, which ranks the world's top 1000 universities.
The rankings were released on Wednesday and saw three of the eight South African universities represented having improved their positions.
No South African universities featured in the top 100.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology was named the world number-one university for a record eighth consecutive year, and was followed by Stanford and Harvard in second and third place respectively.
Key findings for South Africa included:
• Based on eight ranked universities, South Africa is the 29th-most-represented university location in the world;
• South Africa’s most-improved university is University of Cape Town, which has risen two places;
• Universities in South Africa perform best on Citations Per Faculty in terms of average rank;
• In terms of Employer Reputation, University of Cape Town has the highest marks;
• University of Cape Town is most recognised for Academic Reputation;
• The university with the strongest Faculty Student Ratio is University of Johannesburg;
• International Student Ratio is highest at Rhodes University;
• University of The Witwatersrand has the largest International Faculty Ratio;
• Faculty are most productive, as measure by Citations Per Faculty, at Stellenbosch University.
Global highlights include:
• The UK’s top institution - and Europe’s - is the University of Oxford, which has risen to fourth. Its compatriot competitor, the University of Cambridge, has dropped to seventh;
• Due to a collapse in employer recognition and increasing class sizes, the United Kingdom’s 84 universities experienced their third-worst performance on record;
• Continental Europe’s best university is ETH Zurich, which has risen to sixth - its highest-ever rank;
• Asia’s top two universities are both Singaporean once again: the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University both rank 11th;
• Latin America’s highest-ranked university is the Universidad de Buenos Aires, which, placing 74th, is the continental leader for the fifth consecutive year.