UKZN claims number one spot in South Africa
The University of KwaZulu-Natal was the only South African university to feature in the top 100. UKZN was number 61, an improvement from last year's position.
THE University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has secured the number one spot in South Africa and listed 61st out of the 475 universities worldwide on the 2021 Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings.
The prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings lists the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger and a total of 68 countries or regions were featured in the 2021 rankings.
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Acting deputy vice-chancellor: Research and Innovation at UKZN, Professor Mosa Moshabela said UKZN, which ranked ahead of the Durban University of Technology, North-West University, the University of Johannesburg and Tshwane University of Technology, is the only South African university to feature in the top 100 and has improved on its 2020 position of 71st.
According to Moshabela, key performance areas assessed are teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
“UKZN received high scores in the areas of teaching and research and also performed well in the international outlook indicator,” he said.
Commenting on the excellent achievement, Moshabela highlighted the importance of the merger between the former universities of Natal (1910-2003) and Durban-Westville (1972-2003) which produced the ‘differently positioned’ and successful “young” University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004.
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“It gives me great comfort that UKZN is doing well from a global perspective and that staff and students are persisting with ongoing collective efforts to grow the university both in stature and impact,” added Moshabela.
Top of the THE Young University rankings this year is Nanyang Technological University in Singapore – a first-time achievement for the institution, while Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris ranked second, up from third last year.
The United Kingdom has the highest number of universities in the rankings, with 37 institutions listed, followed by India with 34 and Spain 33.
THE Young University Rankings applies the same methodology as the flagship World University Rankings to assess research-intensive universities across all their core missions.
Times Higher Education is the leading provider of Higher Education data for the world’s research-led institutions.
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