DUT is Ranked as One of the Top Five Universities in South Africa – Waheeda Peters

DUT IS RANKED AS ONE OF THE TOP FIVE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

BY WAHEEDA PETERS

Having creative, innovative, entrepreneurial and adaptive graduates who can help change the world is one of the key strategic intents of the Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) vision for the next 10 years.

Achieving such a goal works hand in hand with the Institution having an excellent academic ranking, which was showcased by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 and makes DUT one of the top five South African universities and among the finest in the world.

The global performance ranking judged researchorientated universities of more than 1 500 universities

DUT - RANKED IN THE TOP 5 OF ALL SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES

DUT ranking logo edited by THEWUR.

across 93 countries and regions. This ranking analysed more than 80 million citations across over 13 million research publications and included survey responses from 22 000 scholars globally.

Trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, this list also provides great insight into the shifting balance of power in global higher education.

The ratings are calculated by the standardised performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, citations and international outlook. DUT comprises five campuses in Durban and two campuses in Pietermaritzburg, with an annual student complement of more than 30 000.

DUT’s drive is to become an entrepreneurial university, and it has also adopted programmes, infrastructure, social

interactions and technologies that consistently meet the needs of its students and shape their teaching and learning to help improve the quality of their lives and the people within their communities.

DUT allows for collaboration and research on a global scale to ensure that students and academic staff alike are given numerous opportunities.

Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Thandwa Mthembu said: “My predecessors did a lot of work to build the right foundation by encouraging a number of people to ensure that although we were a technical university where academic staff were not required to have doctoral degrees, from around 2010/2014, more and more staff would earn PhDs.”

Professor Nokuthula Sibiya, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning at DUT, shared that it was an honour and a great achievement for DUT to be listed in the annual rankings of the world’s top universities.

“DUT continues to be the top research-intense university of technology in South Africa. Let us continue to keep the University’s flag flying high by jetting to our final destination, which is ENVISION 2030,” she said.

Conveying her excitement about DUT’s accomplishment, DUT’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement Professor Sibusiso Moyo explained that it is important to see the rankings within their context as they help to showcase areas of excellence and in this case, the quality of the research (citations) has seen the University ranked 10th globally.

“The value add of our researchers, postgraduate students, support staff and strategic partners in South Africa and internationally is much appreciated. We have to keep on challenging ourselves despite the effects of the global pandemic COVID-19, to do better, and remain relevant to our local and regional agendas.

“It is good to now know that we are part of the top 500 global universities and top five South African universities. Congratulations,” said Professor Moyo.

Alan Khan, Senior Director: Corporate Affairs, said: “We are extremely proud of our colleagues and students who worked so diligently and consistently to get us into the top five of all South African universities. DUT is also the number one University of Technology in the country.

“With our focus on implementing ENVISION 2030 and our DNA of being people-centred and engaged, innovative and entrepreneurial, we have a solid foundation to make this a decade of taking DUT to even greater levels of performance,” said Khan.