Abstract
This article is the second of a duology on the phenomenon of the international race on global university rankings. In the first article, an overview of a reflection on the international rise of the global university rankings was given. The aim of the second article is to use the results of the first article as basis to investigate the position of South African universities on the following authoritative global university ranking systems currently, as well as 10 years ago: Academic Ranking of World Universities, Times Higher Education, Quacquarelli Symonds and the rankings of the Spanish National Research Council.
The article commences with a survey of the current contextual realities and imperatives of South African higher education. These include a forceful expansion and equalisation during the past three decades; however, the gross higher education enrolment ratio is low, and equalisation still has a long way to go. Many students who enter the gates of higher education institutions come from a school system that has prepared them very inadequately for the rigours of university study. The socio-political turmoil prevalent in society spills over to university campuses. Academic personnel are overloaded and find themselves in institutions that have historically evolved with teaching as their prime mission. A strong culture of managerialism has descended on academics over the past 30 years. Moreover, academic personnel find themselves in a professional environment very unfavourable for concentrating on their research brief. Each of these features of South African higher education and the context in which it finds itself makes it very difficult for South African institutions of higher education to be competitive on the global university rankings.
Commencing with the Academic Ranking of World Universities, it should be mentioned that in 2021, this ranking graded only the top 500 universities in the world. By 2021, the top 1 000 universities in the world were included. The number of South African universities included in the top 500 has grown from three in 2011 to four in 2021. Eight South African universities have made it to the top 1 000 on the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities at the time of writing. That means that 34,6% of the 26 public universities in South Africa fall in the top 1 000 (of the some 31 000) universities in the world, which is no mean achievement.
On the 2022 Times Higher Education rankings, the achievement of South African universities is even more impressive than on the Academic Ranking of World Universities. When the registration of South African universities on the 2022 Times Higher Education rankings is compared with the registration 10 years previously (2011/2012), it should be borne in mind that the Times Higher Education rankings at that stage (2011/2012) graded only the top 400 universities in the world. In the 2022 round of rankings, the top 2 112 universities were graded. In both rankings (2022 and 2011/2012) three South African universities were among the top 400 universities worldwide. However, the grading of the top South African university has dropped by 80 positions from 2011/2012. In the 2023 round, 1 799 universities in 104 countries were graded. Fifteen South African universities appear in the 2023 rankings. However, most of these universities have dropped in position compared to 2022.
Turning to the Quacquarelli Symonds rankings, nine South African universities are ranked under the top 1 200 universities in the world. These are mostly also the universities achieving well on the Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education rankings. Compared to the situation on the 2012 Quacquarelli Symonds rankings, it should be remembered that at that stage, the Quacquarelli Symonds rankings included only 725 universities. The position of the top two universities in South Africa has dropped significantly during this 10-year period. Currently, there are, as was the case 10 years ago, five South African universities among the top 725 of the Quacquarelli Symonds rankings.
Half of the public universities in South Africa appear in the top percentile of the 31 000 universities worldwide as ranked by the Ranking Web of World Universities, by the Spanish National Research Council. All 26 public South African universities are above the median. To be exact, the lowest rank order of a public South African university is 9 431, far above the median. Currently, there is one more South African public university in the top percentile than was the case a decade ago. What is even more encouraging, is that with the exception of two universities, all South African universities have improved their rankings during the past decade. A decade ago, only three public South African universities were below the median. The lowest South African rank on the 2011 rankings was 10 915, out of some 16 000 universities ranked. That in itself is a noteworthy achievement. The situation was improved in 2022, which makes it even more remarkable.
The article ends with four sets of conclusions: the first on the achievement of South African universities on the global rankings; the second is a series of recommendations for future university practice; the third states what the results of this research indicate for the ideal of equality; and the fourth notes how this research informs the never-ending discourse on the issue of language medium at South African universities. Given the far from optimal, or even favourable, circumstances in which academic personnel at South African universities find themselves, South African universities perform surprisingly well on the global rankings. Even more encouraging is the trend, at least over the past 10 years, that South African universities on aggregate have performed better on the global rankings. At the same time, it is cause for concern that the top university in the country has dropped in ranking over the past 10 years. This regression should receive attention and be halted, if not reversed.
While it would be reckless and short-sighted to recommend that South African universities pursue high global rankings at the price of negating national contextual imperatives, the country as part of a competitive, globalised world means that registration on the global rankings cannot be ignored or accorded little value. The reasons why the pursuit of global rankings cannot be set aside were provided in the first article of the duology. Therefore, each of the constituencies that have an interest in universities in South Africa should contribute to the continuous improvement of South African universities as measured by the global rankings. These interest groups are university leadership, the academic profession, students, administrative supportive staff, government, and civil society at large.
A cause for concern is the fact that the historical division between the historically white and historically black South African universities is still visible in the global rankings. The continual marginalisation of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction at universities cannot be justified by the results of the global rankings of universities.
Keywords: equal education opportunities; global university rankings; language medium at universities; South Africa; universities