Six universities in South Africa are among the top 100 higher education institutions in emerging economies.

This is according to the Times Higher Education Emerging Economies University Rankings for 2019, which looked at 442 institutions.

The University of Cape Town came 9th, Wits University 11th, Stellenbosch University 24th, University of KwaZulu-Natal 49th, University of Pretoria 78th and the University of Johannesburg also made the cut at number 99.

Institutions are judged by 13 indicators, including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook but "are recalibrated to reflect the development priorities of universities in emerging economies", according to the organisation's website.

China claimed the top three spots, with its Tsinghua University coming first, Peking University second and Zhejiang University third. The country remains the most represented nation in the 2019 list, with 72 institutions.