3 varsities in SA excel in rankings

IF A university degree involving the study of birds or fungi ranks high in your books‚ South Africa is not a bad place to be.

Three South African universities offer subjects in which they are among the best-performing teachers in the world.

Two of these subjects are ornithology (the study of birds) and mycology‚ the branch of biology that deals with the study of fungi.

The Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) has placed the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)‚ the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Pretoria (UP) in the top of its 2017 global subjects rankings.

Wits placed second in area studies‚ while UCT placed fourth in the subject. Area Studies is an interdisciplinary field of research covering the resources concerned with the social‚ economic‚ political and military character of a geographical area.

Wits placed fifth for anthropology‚ alongside institutions like University College London‚ the University of Oxford‚ University of Cambridge‚ and Arizona State University.

UCT came in at third place for ornithology and the University of Pretoria second for mycology.

The CWUR ranks the world’s leading universities in 227 subjects covering all academic disciplines in the sciences and social sciences.

The ranking is based on the number of research articles universities have published in international top-tier journals.

Deputy vice-chancellor for research at Wits Professor Zeblon Vilakazi said the university was pleased with its performance.

“Leading local and international scholars have also joined Wits and we now host the largest number of DST/NRF Centres of Excellence in the country. — TMG