UKZN has been ranked in the top 2.5% universities worldwide.
This is according to the 2022-23 edition of the Global 2000 list by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) published on 25 April. The list can be found on the CWUR website: www.cwur.org.
According to these rankings, the University is placed 484 out of 19 788 universities worldwide. The Education Ranking is at 497; the Employability Ranking is 361, and the Research Ranking is 475. The rankings place UKZN in 4th spot in Africa and also 4th in South Africa. The University has an overall score of 74.3.
Good governance, management of academic talent, research productivity, quality programmes and the high calibre of staff and students contributed to UKZN’s placement in the top 500 of the world’s leading universities.
The CWUR publishes the largest academic rankings of global universities.
The rankings are unique in that:
- Objective indicators are used for all four key pillars underlying the methodology of the ranking (education, employability, faculty, and research) with no reliance on surveys and university data submissions;
- Equal emphasis is put on student-related and faculty-related indicators;
- 19 788 universities are ranked according to their academic performance.
‘UKZN’s ranking in the top 2.5% of the world’s universities enhances the image, brand and reputation of the University. This augurs well for UKZN as students, academics, alumni, funders and global partners want to be associated with high-performing universities with high rankings. Rankings are an independent tool for monitoring performance. They focus on the core functions of universities which include: research, teaching, meaningful community engagement and internationalisation. They assist institutions in measuring their performance and thus self-monitoring and self-improvement while also fostering healthy competition and best practice among universities,’ said Ms Normah Zondo, UKZN’s Executive Director: Corporate Relations.
About the methodology:
CWUR uses seven objective and robust indicators grouped into four areas to rank the world’s universities:
- Education, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have won major academic distinctions relative to the University’s size (25%).
- Employability, measured by the number of a University’s alumni who have held top executive positions at the world’s largest companies relative to the University’s size (25%).
- Faculty, measured by the number of faculty members who have won major academic distinctions (10%).
- Research:
i) Research output, measured by the total number of research articles (10%).
ii) High-quality publications, measured by the number of research articles appearing in top-tier journals (10%).
iii) Influence, measured by the number of research articles appearing in highly-influential journals (10%).
iv) Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research articles (10%).
About the Center for World University Rankings
The CWUR is a leading consulting organisation providing policy advice, strategic insights, and consulting services to governments and universities to improve educational and research outcomes. It publishes authoritative global university rankings, known for objectivity, transparency, and consistency, which are trusted by students, academics, university administrators, and governments from around the world.
Words: NdabaOnline
Image: Supplied
