Times Higher Education (THE) have published the fifth edition of their Impact rankings which attempt to measure the commitment of universities to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These rankings have expanded rapidly since 2019 and now include 1,591 universities.
Universities are ranked according to their performance in four criteria related to the SDGs, research, stewardship, outreach and teaching. Evidence includes research publications, policy statements and commitments, and data submitted by institutions. Overall ranking is based on one mandatory goal, Partnership for the Goals, and the best scores for three others.
British, Australian and Canadian universities dominate the higher levels of these rankings. Indonesia, Iraq and Pakistan are very well represented. In contrast, there are only seven institutions from China.
The top five overall are:
- Western Sydney University, Australia
- University of Manchester, UK
- Queen’s University, Australia
- Universiti Sains Malaysia
- University of Tasmania, Australia.
A number of African universities have done well in several of the specific goals. The University of Johannesburg, South Africa, is in first place for No Poverty and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, for Quality Education.
Since the methodology of the rankings has changed significantly since 2019 and since the number of ranked universities is constantly changing, THE state that they discourage year to year comparisons.
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