When one looks at some of the criteria used in most of the ranking exercises, one could say it is not for African universities. A criterion such as the international character of a faculty or of the university will inherently bring down most universities in Africa because of the exchange rate crisis but also, for a long time, empire builders have narrativised Africa as the anti-thesis of modernity.
It is in that context that the performance of South Africa’s University of Cape Town remains interesting. ‘Colonialism of a special type’ might account for its performance but, even then, it is interesting it has remained within the first 150 in almost all previous overall and specific subject ranking.
Even this year that it has climbed down to 180th position in the social sciences category, for instance, it is still ahead of many otherwise tough universities in the world, among them Dartmouth College, University of California in Davis, University of Uppsala, Ghent University, University of Amsterdam, University of Geneva, University of York (in Canada), Heidelberg, Hamburg, Lausanne and not less than three Australian universities.
Cape Town,South Africa
68.1
=180
Amsterdam,Netherlands
68
182
New Delhi,India
67.8
=188
Vienna,Austria
67.7
=191
Newcastle upon Tyne,United Kingdom
5+QS Stars
67.7
191
Osaka City,Japan
67.6
=193
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta,United States
67.5
=194
69117 Heidelberg,,Germany
67.5
=194
University of California, Davis
Davis,United States
67.5
=194
Geneva,Switzerland
67.5
=194
Hamburg,Germany
67.5
=194
Helsinki,Finland
67.1
=206
Hanover,United States
67
=209
Geelong,Australia
67
=209
Calgary,Canada
67
=209
Victoria University of Wellington
Kelburn, Wellington,New Zealand
5+QS Stars
67
=209
Toronto,Canada
67
=209
Nanjing,China (Mainland)
66.9
=214
Bundoora,Australia
5+QS Stars
66.8
=216
Uppsala,Sweden
66.8
=216
Ghent,Belgium
66.7
=218
Doha,Qatar
66.7
=218
Waterloo,Canada
66.7
218
Southampton,United Kingdom
66.6
=223
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) – Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad,India
66.4
=224
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst,United States
66.4
=224
Warsaw,Poland
66.4
=224
Chestnut Hill,United States
66.3
=227
Giza,Egypt
66.3
=227
Ottawa,Canada
66.3
=227
Lausanne,Switzerland
66.2
=230
Liverpool,United Kingdom
66.1
=230
Sydney,Australia
66
=234
Gothenburg,Sweden
66
=234
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
Chicago,United States
66
234
