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Unisa moves up in the ARWU list of top 1 000 international universities

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According to the 2025 ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published on 15 August, Unisa remains among the eight best universities in the country and the top 1 000 universities globally.

The ranking is published by the Center for World-Class Universities of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

As only approximately 10% of all universities are ranked by ARWU and only the top 1 000 universities are published in the ranking results, it is a significant achievement for Unisa to be included in the ranking.

The university retains its position as eighth among South African universities. Unisa improved its ranking band placement from the 901 to 1 000 range in 2024 to the 801 to 900 range in 2025, and is one of only two South African universities to show a band improvement.

The criteria, indicators and weights used by ARWU to rank world universities 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%)
  • The per capita academic performance of an institution (10%)

The South African universities included in the top 1 000 are the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand in the 201-300 band, Stellenbosch University in the 401-500 band, the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg in the 501-600 band, the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the 601-700 band, North-West University in the 701-800 band, and Unisa in the 801-900 band.

Unisa’s continued good ARWU performance is very much an indicator of the university’s focus on ten catalytic niche areas that reaffirm the university’s excellence in the areas of teaching and learning, research and innovation, and engaged scholarship, as well as the global impact of the institution.

Speaking recently at the Unisa Catalytic Niche Area Research Symposium, Prof Puleng LenkaBula, the institution’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, lauded leaders in the research portfolio for institutionalising research that supports catalytic niches. "These areas," she said, "contribute to rethinking and reclaiming Africa’s futures. Unisa’s roots are embedded in African knowledge, social justice and academic excellence, enabling us to remain steady, even as we navigate the shifting global dynamics."

* Article by Philip van der Merwe, Editor, Department of Institutional Advancement, based on analysis by Herman Visser, Department of Institutional Intelligence

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Publish date: 2025-08-25 00:00:00.0

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