Cape Town is hosting the Times Higher Education (THE) World Academic Summit from 29 September to 1 October 2026, marking the first time the event has taken place on African soil. The summit is co-hosted by the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Bristol, bringing together senior higher-education leaders, policymakers, and industry figures to discuss the theme “Knowledge, justice and futures: Universities in the age of intelligence.”
According to The University of Cape Town News, the event provides a platform for African and Global South perspectives on higher education challenges and innovations. The summit focuses in particular on harnessing human, artificial, and collective intelligence to address global issues, with a special emphasis on artificial intelligence’s growing role in education.
During the opening of the summit on 29 September, the Times Higher Education 2027 World University Rankings were launched at UCT. Daily Maverick reported that UCT climbed to joint 147th in these rankings, a rise that marks its best performance in seven years and its first return to the top 150 since 2020. While broader claims of South African universities climbing the rankings are yet to be fully verified, this progress highlights the advancing stature of the country’s higher-education institutions on a global scale.
Professor Mosa Moshabela, UCT Vice-Chancellor, highlighted the significance of hosting the summit on the African continent: “It’s one thing being a leader on the continent on paper because of rankings from Times Higher Education, but it’s another thing being a leader in terms of creating platforms and space for others on the continent to partake in that space.” He also spoke on UCT’s evolving approach to artificial intelligence in academics, noting a shift from penalising students for AI use to developing frameworks that accommodate it. “Initially, our academics were penalising students for using AI… After we developed our own framework for AI, we decided that we are going to turn off those AI detection tools,” Moshabela explained in an interview with Chinese media Xinhua.
The summit’s co-host, the University of Bristol, emphasised that the event serves as a convergence point for leaders across higher education, government, business, and civil society. The goal is to explore ways that institutions can use all forms of intelligence to tackle major global challenges, reinforcing Cape Town’s role as a hub for international academic engagement.
For Cape Town and the Western Cape, hosting the THE World Academic Summit brings both economic and reputational benefits. It positions the city as a centre of innovation and knowledge exchange, while spotlighting African contributions to global higher education during a transformative era.
CapeFlats.co.za will continue monitoring developments at the summit and the broader international standing of South African universities, providing updates as new information emerges.