QS Recognizes NWU as One of South Africa’s Top Seven Universities

The latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings place the North-West University (NWU) among the top seven universities in South Africa. QS published its rankings for top global universities for 2025 on 4 June.

The NWU has performed consistently among local universities in these rankings ─ QS ranked the NWU seventh in the country last year too. Globally, the NWU moved into the 851 to 900 ranking category.

It is not only globally and locally that the NWU shines. According to QS, the NWU is now also among the top thirteen universities in Africa.

The university improved its position in both the Employment outcomes and the Citations per faculty categories.

This current ranking by the London-based QS was the 21st edition and included 1 500 institutions from across 105 higher-education systems from around the world. It considers survey responses and hard data to calculate a final score for each university. QS is the only ranking of its kind to emphasise employability and sustainability.

The latest QS rankings follow their World University Rankings by Subject, which were published in April this year. The Rankings by Subject placed three NWU subject groups in the top 700 globally. These are agriculture and forestry (301 to 350 category), physics and astronomy (601 to 640 category), and medicine and health sciences (601 to 650 category).