The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Veterinary Science course has been ranked 43rd globally in the QS World University Rankings for 2019. Furthermore, UP is among seven South African universities which have courses in the top 500 in the world, in this ranking system.

UP’s Faculty of Veterinary Science is the only one in South Africa, and its course offering has been ranked for the first time by QS. The Faculty trains veterinarians and veterinary nurses, and in 2018 it was placed 37th among all veterinary schools in the world on the international Shanghai rankings.

Other UP courses that have been ranked for the first time are Development Studies (51- 100 range), Environmental Sciences (251-300 range) while Accounting and Finance moved up from not being ranked in 2018 to the 201-250 range.

Biology Sciences is now in the 301-350 range, up from 351-400 in 2018, while Medicine is also in the same range, up from 351-400. Sociology is now in the 201-50 range, up from 251-300.

Prof Anton Ströh, UP Vice-Principal: Institutional Planning, said UP is pleased with the course rankings. “We will continue improving the quality of our courses, and the attainment of excellence is non-negotiable. We will also strive to improve our position as one of the biggest producers of research in Africa. In doing so, we will enhance our contribution to South Africa’s quest to become a knowledge economy.”

According to the QS website, its rankings are based on four main sources: global surveys of academics and employers, while it assesses the Elsevier’s Scopus database, the world’s most comprehensive research citations database, to determine the other two indicators. Research impact is assessed according to research citations per paper and h-index in the relevant subject. 

The rankings focus on 48 individual subjects, and assess how universities are performing in five broad subject areas: Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences and Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and Management.

QS says: “Rankings results help prospective students, and their parents, make decisions about the huge investment of time and money that is the higher education experience. In addition, it provides information to the institutions themselves as they try to determine their place in the world. Of course, it can aid administrators in decision-making and creating long-term vision for their programs.”