The North-West University (NWU) continues its impressive performance in various global rankings with a 120th-place ranking in the 2021 Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings.
The latest THE Young University Rankings, published on 23 June 2021, place the NWU among the best 120 out of more than 475 universities globally. This is the second time that the NWU has appeared in this particular ranking, which focuses on universities that are 50 years old or younger.
The Young University Rankings include universities from various countries and use 13 performance indicators to evaluate them.
These performance indicators are grouped into five areas: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (knowledge transfer). The weightings are recalibrated from THE’s other rankings to reflect the profile and mission of young universities.
For more information on the Young University Rankings, visit THE website
NWU is among the cream of the crop
The latest ranking follows on the heels of a position among the top nine (9) best South African universities in the World University Rankings by higher-education analysts Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which was released on 8 June.
This ranking by the London-based QS was the eighteenth edition. It considers survey responses and hard data to calculate a final score for each university. QS does this by using six indicators, namely academic reputation (40%); employer reputation (10%); student-to-faculty ratio (20%); citations per faculty (20%), international faculty ratio (5%), and international student ratio (5%).
Compared to last year, the NWU has improved in three of these indicators. These are academic reputation, employer reputation and citations per faculty.
Citations per faculty are the strongest indicators for the NWU and place the university in the 601+ category globally. It measures the average number of citations obtained per faculty member and is an estimate of the impact and quality of the scientific work produced by universities.
The academic reputation is obtained from an annual survey conducted by QS that evaluates the perceptions of academics from around the world regarding the best institutions in terms of research. The NWU is placed in the 501+ category based on responses from 130 000 academics worldwide.
The employer reputation indicator is taken from the annual QS survey that focuses on gathering the views of employers around the world on the institutions providing the best professionals. The NWU was placed in the 501+ category based on the responses from over 75 000 employers globally.
NWU regularly shines in rankings
The NWU also excelled in the World University Rankings’ Global 2000 list and THE Emerging Economies University Rankings in 2021.
The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) placed the NWU in the top 4,7% of universities in their 2021/2022 edition of the Global 2000 list that was published on 26 April this year (read more:
The CWUR ranking followed a top-100 placement ― and overall sixth place in South Africa ― in the THE Emerging Economies University Ranking, which was announced in March this year. The THE ranking placed the NWU in the overall 97th place out of 606 universities participating in their ranking (read more)
The NWU frequently received good rankings throughout 2020 and 2019 read more:
Prof Dan Kgwadi, vice-chancellor and principal of the NWU, says the management of the NWU is extremely proud of all staff, students and other role players who are doing their part in making the NWU shine internationally.
He says the university’s commitment to excellence in research and teaching and learning is the result of the NWU family’s passion, dedication and commitment.
“I want to reiterate that this international recognition serves as an enabler for fostering partnerships and international collaboration and supports the NWU’s dream of being an internationally recognised university in Africa. The future of postgraduate studies and research will be driven by transdisciplinary research, partnerships, collaboration and networks.”
