With the turmoil in South African universities, more and more South Africans are looking abroad at options for tertiary education for their children. While it definitely isn’t a cheap option, for many families the sacrifice is one they are willing to make in order to invest in their child’s future.
The World University Rankings published by Times Higher Education rank over 1,000 universities according to a range of criteria. The top university in South Africa was UCT, which ranked 171st. Other South African universities in the top 500 were Wits (now ranked 250+, a big dip from 2017 where they ranked equal 182nd), Stellenbosch and University of KZN.
Here are the rankings of some of the most popular expat destinations for South Africans.
Top Universities in Australia
- University of Melbourne (ranked 32nd)
- Australian National University (48th)
- University of Sydney (61st)
- University of Queensland (65th)
- Monash University (equal 80th)
Interestingly, Australian universities have the third highest number of international students in the world after the UK and the US.
While Australian universities have been able to reasonably high rankings, the highest ranked university in New Zealand, the University of Auckland, only came in at 192nd.
Top Universities in the UK
- University of Oxford (top ranking university in the world)
- University of Cambridge (2nd)
- Imperial College London (8th)
- University College London (16th)
- London School of Economics & Political Science (equal 25th)
Top Universities in Canada
- University of Toronto (equal 22nd)
- University of British Columbia (equal 34th)
- McGill University (42nd)
- McMaster University (78th)
- University of Montreal (108th)
Top Universities in the USA
- California Institute of Technology (equal 3rd)
- Stanford University (equal 3rd)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5th)
- Harvard University (6th)
- Princeton University (7th)
For more information, see the list of World University Rankings 2018.