Johannesburg - The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been ranked among the top 3.6% of the world’s best-performing universities out of 20 000 institutions surveyed.
This is according to the 2020-21 Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) released on Monday.
According to UJ's Herman Esterhuizen, the CWUR ranked his institution using its methodology of seven performance criteria, which include quality of education, quality of academic faculty staff, alumni employment, and overall research performance.
"The latter comprising research-related factors, including the quantity of research output publications, as well as those research output publications of the highest quality, influence and impact, which appear in top-tier and highly influential journals, and which are highly cited.
"Since its debut in 2017, UJ has gradually climbed the CWUR World University Rankings by nearly 250 places over just three years10 nationally to have improved and climbed this year from its previous position, and by a considerable 55 places from last year’s 2019-20 global ranking of 761," he said.
Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, the vice-chancellor and principal, UJ said the rankings also reaffirm their stature as an international university of choice, anchored in Africa and dynamically shaping the future.
“We have invested heavily in our teaching and research domains. We are thrilled with this global endorsement that recognises our endeavours towards global excellence and stature, in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The CWUR ranking placement also placed UJ as the sixth best university in South Africa with the top five being the University of Cape Town (UCT), University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Stellenbosch University (SU), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and the University of Pretoria (UP).
While UJ went up the rankings worldwide, the top five South African universities dropped, according to CWUR.
UCT dropped by 16 places to 268, Wits by 21 places to 275, SU by 48 places to 429, UKZN by 53 places to 477, and UP by 22 places to 578.
Other South African universities also dropped, except for Unisa which is still in 11th position nationally.