Varsities in SA hit Brics wall

Quacquarelli Symonds, which publishes global university rankings, has for the third time ranked 404 universities from Brics countries.

China claimed seven of the top 10 places, with India, Brazil and Russia each winning one.

South African universities dropped slightly in the ratings.

Quacquarelli Symonds said: "Managers of these universities argue that their faculty-student ratio is essentially set by the government, which presses them to admit more students but does not fund them well enough to hire more staff.

"These tricky educational economics mean, too, that South Africa's academics are not well-paid by world standards and as a result many do not have a PhD."

But South African universities did well in terms of papers published per faculty, having a high number of foreign students and staff, and employers' perceptions of the quality of their graduates.

Source: The Times via I-Net Bridge