The University of Cape Town (UCT) has been ranked 39th in the latest release of Times Higher Education (THE) list of the 200 most international universities. This is a move up considering it was not ranked last year and came at position 60 in 2018
The ranking was compiled using the results of the “international outlook” indicator in THE World University Rankings 2020. UCT was ranked 136th position in the overall THE world rankings 2020, keeping the university in the top spot in South Africa as well as on the continent. THE International University ranking considers each institution’s proportion of international staff, the proportion of international students and the proportion of research papers published with at least one co-author from another country.
Acknowledging the achievement, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalization at UCT Professor Sue Harrison noted that it is simply not possible to achieve high levels of excellence without being open to the world.
“UCT strives to foster international collaboration across Africa and the rest of the world. Although our primary mission is always to serve our country and local context first, we cannot achieve our ambitious research objectives and solve the continent’s complex problems without extensive global collaboration and cross-pollination.” She said.
The 10 most international universities in the ranking including City University of Hong Kong (1st), University of Hong Kong (2nd) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (3rd), all came from four countries: Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Internationalization activities can boost a university’s global reputation, help them in areas such as student recruitment, academic recruitment and attracting international funding and collaboration opportunities.
Photo Courtesy / Google
Article by Jedidah Mwangi
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