University of Cape Town: UCT ranks among top 20 emerging economy universities

The University of Cape Town (UCT) ranks 16th worldwide (tied with Taipei Medical University, Taiwan) among universities in countries with emerging economies, according to the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings.

South Africa has 11 institutions included in these rankings with 6 in the top 100. UCT dropped six places from last year, and was ranked second on the continent, below the University of the Witwatersrand.

The latest emerging economy rankings, which include institutions in 50 countries or regions classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as “advanced emerging”, “secondary emerging” or “frontier”, show that emerging universities are improving faster than those around the rest of the world.

A record number of universities qualified for this year’s rankings – 698, an increase of 15% compared with 2021 (606). China led the rankings with seven universities in the top 10 and took all five top spots with Peking University in first followed by Tsinghua University in second place. Russia and Taiwan were also represented in the top 10.

THE’s Emerging Economies University Rankings use the same 13 performance indicators as for its World University Rankings – to assess institutions across their teaching, research, research impact, industry income and international outlook – while aiming to take into account the disparities between emerging and developed economies by adjusting the indicators’ weightings to reflect more closely the characteristics of emerging universities.

In September THE placed UCT at 183rd position tying with Notre Dame University (US) in its 2022 World University Rankings, which assessed almost 1 600 institutions worldwide. UCT retained its top spot in the country and on the continent.