The global excellence and academic robustness of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has, once again, been acknowledged, with UJ ranked amongst the Top 100 universities in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) BRICS University Rankings for 2019.
UJ remains steady at the fifth position amongst the 13 South African universities ranked, while also retaining its position among the Top 100 universities (at 61). Only 403 universities in the five BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – were considered for this year’s QS BRICS University Rankings, up from the 300 universities evaluated last year. Significantly, an enlarged QS survey database, extremely high levels of competition, and an increased pool of assessed BRICS universities, are the factors that impact the top South African universities the most.
Since 2014, UJ has gained two places in this ranking. Over the five considered years, the University moved up twice and fell twice. Despite the three-place drop from last year’s rank of 58, UJ’s overall score increased derived from the increased scores obtained for the eight performance indicators, namely – global academic and employer reputation, internationalisation of academic staff and students, academic staff qualification levels, ratio of academic staff to students, and research productivity and impact.
Says Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UJ: “In fact, UJ improved markedly across the board increasing its scores in each performance indicator. The University scored very well for its intake of both international students and international academic staff. This is testament to the effectiveness of the UJ strategy to increase its global standing. UJ also received a favourable rating in the employer reputation indicator (31st among BRICS universities), while the University’s academic reputation rating is not far behind. These two indicators highlight the international standard of UJ’s teaching and learning and its outstanding reputation amongst academics and the employers of its graduates alike.”
Prof Marwala concludes: “The University is delighted with this recognition and its performance in the context of a ranking system that is dominated by huge numbers of Chinese and Russian universities, and in which South Africa is the smallest player. However, the ranking provides us with the opportunity to review our progress. I have no doubt that we can continuously improve at a rate relative to the other BRICS nations.”
A full comparison of the Top institutions in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the five major emerging national economies can be viewed here
- READ Prof Marwala’s recently penned an opinion article on why South Africa should take part in global university rankings