THE Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 has recorded five South African universities in the top 500 in the global rankings, despite many challenges that have dogged the higher education sector over the past few years.

The universities are the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University‚ the University of Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

Also ranked highly in the top 800 universities in the world were the University of Pretoria, North West University and University of South Africa.

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Higher Education and Training minister Blade Nzimande said the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 should be celebrated as a significant national achievement.

“Bearing in mind that the Academic Ranking of World Universities is one of the most respected global ranking systems, this strong performance and continuing solid progress by our institutions of higher education is without doubt a cause for national celebration.

“This is more so given the many challenges that the higher education sector continues to grapple with, many of them inherited from the pre-democracy era, including those related to access, transformation and funding,” Minister Nzimande said.

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