it is important for students, researchers, and research funding organizations to be able to rank academic institutions, as future employment opportunities and research funding are determined by the quality of the institution. This article ranks fourteen South African academic institutions according to the number of their front-line researchers as identified by a large scale peer evaluation, and according to their research output. The two rankings are found to be highly correlated. It is argued that the high correlation provides evidence for the value of "publication counts" as a proxy for research quality and that research output is an efficient and easily obtained predictor of university rankings according to peer reviews. introduction Ranking academic institutions is important for students, research funding organizations, and researchers. For students, and in particular for post-graduate students, ranking is indicative of post-graduate employment opportunities. It has been argued [l] that rankings may be used as a proxy for employment opportunities since they may serve as a screening device for employers and an indicator of research quality by students. It is a known fact that multinational companies compete strongly for the acquisition of post-graduates of reputable schools, such as Harvard and MIT, offering positions to their students well in advance of their graduation year. An additional reason for PhD students to "keep an eye" on university rankings is the fact that in many countries doctoral bursaries are based not only on the merit of the candidate but also on the quality of the supervisor [2].
Research funding organizations are also interested in academic institution rankings. Resource limitations and prudent use of public money call for a distribution of funds placing priority in research with perceived socio-economic benefits. Such research is based on the identification of the areas of today's research that are likely to provide the knowledge base for the important technologies and industries of tomorrow, and on the employment of good re-