Three South African universities have been ranked among the top 500 higher education institutions in the world, according to the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
The University of Cape Town was the country's top-ranked institution, placing in the 201–300 bracket (positions after 100 are not individually assigned).
The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg took second place in the national ranking, falling into the 301–400 category, while Stellenbosch University ranked in the 401–500 bracket.
ARWU — a global university ranking published annually by the Chinese company ShanghaiRanking Consultancy — uses six indicators, including the number of Nobel Prize and Fields Medal laureates among alumni and staff, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of articles published in Nature and Science, the number of publications indexed in major citation databases, and academic performance per capita.
The ranking covers more than 2,500 universities, with data published for the top 1,000 — several other South African universities were also included.