Tshwane universities improve webometrics rankings
The 2025 ranking listed over 31 360 institutions.
Unisa, TUT, UP and Sefako Makgatho universities have all improved their rankings in the first edition of 2025, the Webometrics Ranking Web of Universities.
The four Tshwane universities are among the 31 360 institutions worldwide and 26 South African that were included in the 2025 poll.
The ranking is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, which is part of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain.
CSIC is attached to the Spanish Ministry of Education, and its main objective is to promote scientific research to improve the welfare of citizens.
Since 2004, the ranking has been published twice a year, covering more than 31 000 higher education institutions worldwide.
The group focused on three main benchmarks for the first edition of its 2025 ranking:
– Visibility or impact of web content: The number of external networks (subnets) linking to the institution’s web pages (weighted at 50%). Unisa achieved a visibility rank of 1 256.
– Transparency or openness: The number of citations from the top 310 authors, excluding the top 30 outliers based on Google Scholar profiles (10%). Unisa achieved a transparency rank of 972.
– Excellence: The number of papers among the top 10% most cited in each one of the 27 disciplines of the full database over the last five years (40%). Unisa achieved an excellence rank of 848.
The University of Pretoria (UP) increased its ranking from 445 to 431, the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), from 1 814 to 1 792, the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU), from 3 058 to 2 912 and the University of South Africa (Unisa), from 797 to 732.
Appointed recently for a second term, Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Puleng LenkaBula, has expressed her satisfaction with the improvements that the university is making.
“Unequivocally, it is Unisa’s mission to reclaim its place at the top tier of higher education institutions. The university is rapidly evolving and acknowledged globally as a leading university that not only meets but exceeds international standards of excellence in education, research, innovation and sustainability,” Prof LenkaBula said.
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