Stellenbosch University's (SU) growing global stature has been reinforced with the recent announcement of the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings.
SU, placed second in South Africa, improved from 408 to 351 in rank.
The THE World Reputation Rankings 2022 are based on the world's largest invitation-only opinion survey of senior, published academics. It asks scholars to name no more than 15 universities that they believe are the best for research and teaching in their field.
The Academic Reputation Survey, available in 12 languages, uses United Nations data as a guide to ensure that the response coverage is as representative of world scholarship as possible. A questionnaire targets only experienced, published scholars, who offer their views on excellence in research and teaching within their disciplines and at institutions with which they are familiar.
The 2022 rankings are based on a survey carried out between November 2021 and February 2022, which received a total of 29 606 responses from 159 countries.
With regard to the criteria in the World Reputation Rankings, the University improved on amongst others overall votes, research rank, research votes and teaching rank and votes.
Prof Hester Klopper, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Strategy, Global and Corporate Affairs, says the University's general improvement on the THE World Reputation Rankings 2022 serves as further testimony to the institution's growing reputation as one of the leading research-intensive universities in the world. “This particular ranking is special as it focuses on the opinion of some of the world's foremost scholars. To be recognised in this way gives further impetus to the institution's vision of being Africa's leading research-intensive university, globally recognised as excellent, inclusive and innovative, where we advance knowledge in service of society."
Harvard University tops the ranking for the 12th consecutive year, and the US remains the most represented country, with 56 institutions. The top 10 is dominated by universities in the US and UK, with the only exceptions being China's Tsinghua University, rising one place to ninth, and Japan's University of Tokyo, rising three spots to 10th place.
