Top-cited scientists by institution in South Africa

19 institutions with 10 or more listed authors · South Africa

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Which institutions in South Africa have the most top 2% scientists?

19 universities and institutes in South Africa have 10 or more researchers in the 2025 list of top-cited scientists, the annual ranking often called the Stanford–Elsevier top 2% scientists list. University of Cape Town has the most (117), followed by University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (95) and University of Johannesburg (88). Each institution’s page has its top fields and subfields and its first 100 scientists.

#	Institution	Listed authors	Top 100k
1	University of Cape Town	117	48
2	University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg	95	31
3	University of Johannesburg	88	44
4	Stellenbosch University	86	38
5	University of Pretoria	83	31
6	University of KwaZulu-Natal	74	29
7	University of South Africa	59	25
8	North-West University	45	22
9	Faculty of Health Sciences	33	8
10	University of the Western Cape	33	14
11	University of the Free State	27	13
12	South African Medical Research Council	24	8
13	University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Health Sciences	24	11
14	Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town	22	10
15	Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences	17	2
16	Rhodes University	14	3
17	Durban University of Technology	11	2
18	University of Fort Hare	11	5
19	Walter Sisulu University	10	2

Institution names are only recorded for large institutions. The 87 in South Africa with fewer than 10 listed authors are not listed here; the authors table finds them by name.