By Alec Hogg
The irony would be lost on Ntokozo Qwabe, the 25 year old Rhodes scholar famous for biting the long-dead hand of his benefactor, making waitresses cry and, now, leading the chaos at UCT. But the university he left last year has finally been named the world’s very best. And the one Qwabe’s doing his best to trash, has fallen a hefty 28 places.
The 2017 ranking of the world’s top 1 000 universities, released yesterday, sees Oxford displace Caltech, which has occupied the top spot since 2012. In 13 years of The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, this is the first time a university from outside the USA has been number one. Stanford is third followed by Cambridge, MIT, Harvard and Princeton.
Only seven African universities make the list, six of them from South Africa. UCT did best but fell to 148th, squeezed between minor UK schools Nottingham and Sussex which are 23rd and 24th respectively in Britain.
Of the others, Wits improved to position 182 (2016: 201-250); Stellenbosch dropped into 401 to 500 (2016: 301-350) with UKZN ranked between 501 to 600 (401-500) and University of Pretoria in 601 to 800 (501-600). UNISA and The University of Nairobi are ranked in the 801+ grouping. Little wonder, in this talent hungry world, that Africa’s brightest are easy pickings for foreign recruiters.
