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Institution profile

University of Cape Town

South AfricaAfrica

#150

QS World University Rankings 2026

62.3

QS 2026 overall score

QS World University Rankings data

Ranking data

QS World University Rankings source

#150

QS World University Rankings 2026

#171

QS World University Rankings 2025

62.3

QS 2026 overall score

QS 2026 indicators

Indicator-level data

Each card keeps the QS 2026 score and rank separate. A missing value is not estimated.

Academic reputation

QS 2026 score
58.2
QS 2026 rank
#183

Employer reputation

QS 2026 score
62.3
QS 2026 rank
#179

Faculty-student ratio

QS 2026 score
14.6
QS 2026 rank
#801

Citations per faculty

QS 2026 score
75.4
QS 2026 rank
#176

International faculty ratio

QS 2026 score
66.1
QS 2026 rank
#353

International student ratio

QS 2026 score
27.9
QS 2026 rank
#615

International student diversity

QS 2026 score
33.9
QS 2026 rank
#562

International research network

QS 2026 score
97.7
QS 2026 rank
#24

Employment outcomes

QS 2026 score
97.7
QS 2026 rank
#49

Sustainability

QS 2026 score
92.1
QS 2026 rank
#45
University profile

About University of Cape Town

University of Cape Town research is framed through questions in and from Africa

The University of Cape Town describes its research and innovation work through a vision of producing knowledge in and from Africa while responding to social and natural challenges. This is useful context for a topic with a regional, public, environmental, health, or policy dimension. It does not say where every question is studied or which method a particular group uses. The better next move is to identify the faculty, research group, project, or researcher closest to the object of study. A university-wide statement can show the surrounding orientation, while local material can reveal the people, evidence, and research practice that make a comparison meaningful.

UCT's public home material makes several faculties visible, including Commerce, Engineering and the Built Environment, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, and Science. These headings can guide an early search when a problem crosses established disciplines. A question about sustainable development may have a home in science, engineering, health, law, or social research depending on the data and methods involved. Do not stop at the faculty name. Use it to reach the research setting where the question is actually framed. A group or project page can reveal whether the activity draws on field evidence, laboratory studies, design, policy analysis, public health data, or another approach relevant to your own direction.

Strategic strengths, partnerships, and publications offer different kinds of evidence

The University of Cape Town's research page brings together strategic research strengths, global research partnerships, publications, research and innovation news, and links to the Sustainable Development Goals. These categories should not be treated as interchangeable. A strategic strength may give a broad theme. A partnership may show a wider network. A publication can point to an output or scholarly conversation. A current news item can indicate visible activity at a particular moment. Each can help locate a research lead, but the closest academic unit must show the actual work. This distinction is particularly important when a topic appears across several faculties or is connected with an institutional priority.

The public material also describes transdisciplinary work and collaboration connected with sustainable and equitable development. This can help with a problem spanning several fields, yet it is not a fast route to confirmation. A transdisciplinary label can cover very different combinations of evidence and methods. Find the local project that shows how the connection is made. Does it involve a natural system, social condition, public health concern, legal setting, technical design, or another specific object? Does the work use data, interviews, experiments, mapping, archival material, modelling, or a different method? Those details are more informative than a large institutional phrase.

Build a University of Cape Town note from a specific problem and local work

A focused University of Cape Town comparison can be written in a few short steps. First, name the research object in plain language. Next, choose the faculty or research setting most closely linked with that problem. Then locate a current project, group, researcher, or publication that explains the approach. The overlap may concern a social problem, a coastal or environmental setting, an engineering system, a health issue, a legal question, or a policy challenge. State the overlap precisely. It is more useful to explain a shared evidence base or method than to say that the entire university fits a broad interest in sustainability, development, or innovation.

Finish with the question that still requires a direct check. A partnership may not be active in the local group, a publication may describe work already completed, or a faculty may include several unrelated research directions. Keeping those uncertainties visible protects the profile from overreach. It also makes revision easier when current official pages change. The central UCT material provides a valuable map of research, innovation, and wider public questions. The final assessment should remain anchored in the local source that identifies the current research object, methods, and people. That balance produces a more reliable and useful comparison than a general institutional impression.

Institution record

Country
South Africa
Region
Africa
Status
Public
QS size code
L
Profile record updated
July 24, 2026

This date shows when this profile was refreshed. It is not a source-verification date from QS or the university.

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