The North-West University (NWU) is still among the cream of the crop locally and internationally. The latest rankings of the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy again placed the NWU among the top seven South African universities in its 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).  

ARWU lists the NWU in the 601 to 700 ranking category internationally – a considerable achievement, as only the best 1 000 out of more than 2 500 universities that are actually ranked annually are published.  The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy published this ranking list on 15 August. 

It is a continuation of excellence 

The NWU has continued its strong showing in various rankings by different ranking agencies. The latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, published on 4 June, also placed the NWU among the top seven South African universities in the Top Global Universities rankings for 2025. 

The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the NWU among the top 4,2% of the world’s best universities on 13 May, and the Young University Rankings by Times Higher Education (THE) put the NWU 183rd out of 673 universities on the list of the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger. 

More about the ARWU rankings 

ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities. These are: the number of alumni who win Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%); the number of staff who win Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%); the number of highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20%); the number of papers published in Nature and Science (20%); the number of papers indexed in the Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index (20%); and the per capita academic performance of an institution (10%). 

To read more about this year’s ARWU rankings, visit: https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2024, or for more about the NWU’s performance in the various rankings, visit: https://www.nwu.ac.za/rankings.