Top Universities in South Africa

26 universities in South Africa with a measured position, 21 of them ranked worldwide.

#UniversityCityWorld rankCitations
1 University of Stellenbosch #0 4,228,343
2 North-West University #0 1,587,375
3 University of the Western Cape #0 979,920
4 University of the Free State #0 959,966
5 University of South Africa #0 948,136
6 Rhodes University #0 816,711
7 Tshwane University of Technology #0 497,100
8 Nelson Mandela University #0 430,716
9 Durban University of Technology #0 367,176
10 University of Limpopo #0 281,692
11 Cape Peninsula University of Technology #0 226,661
12 University of Venda #0 168,946
13 University of Zululand #0 162,466
14 Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University #0 128,335
15 Vaal University of Technology #0 126,279
16 Sol Plaatje University #0 11,228
17 University of Cape Town #150 (2026) 7,736,530
18 University of Witwatersrand #291 (2026) 5,387,581
19 University of Johannesburg #308 (2026) 2,008,639
20 University of Pretoria #362 (2026) 3,267,696
21 University of KwaZulu-Natal #587 (2025) 4,039,065
22 University of Fort Hare not ranked 353,927
23 Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science not ranked 95,786
24 Central University of Technology not ranked 80,309
25 Mangosuthu Univerisity of Technology not ranked 30,383
26 Univerisity of Mpumalanga not ranked 27,177

What the two columns mean

World rank is the university's QS World University Rankings position. Citations are the number of times work published by the university has been cited, as recorded in OpenAlex; it is the measure used to order universities that QS does not rank at all.

The two do not always agree. A large research university can out-cite a smaller one that sits above it in QS, because QS weighs reputation surveys and staff ratios as well as research.

Rankings in other countries

USA 981 ranked Japan 337 ranked India 306 ranked China 283 ranked South Korea 170 ranked Brazil 164 ranked Iran 160 ranked Indonesia 143 ranked Mexico 134 ranked France 108 ranked Poland 106 ranked Germany 103 ranked