The world’s most sustainable universities have been revealed in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.
And the results paint a gloomy picture of progress towards sustainability in the U.S., with a significant drop in the performance of many higher education institutions.
Now in its sixth year, the rankings are a yardstick measuring not higher education’s contribution to academia, but its role in making the world a better place.
The ranking is the only one that measures universities’ contributions to the U.N.’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), covering a range of targets including tackling poverty and hunger, gender equality, responsible consumption and production and climate action.
“It moves beyond the more traditional research-focused rankings to look at far broader issues — examining how universities are improving our world,” said Phil Baty, chief global affairs officer for Times Higher Education, which also publishes a more conventional higher education ranking.
Universities submit data on as many of the 17 SDGs as they choose, with a series of metrics used to evaluate performance against each of the goals.
“Universities do this to show how important it is to them, and the communities they serve, that they’re standing up to be counted on their commitments to tackle the UN’s sustainable development goals, which is truly inspiring,” Baty added.
Australia is the big success story of these rankings, with four universities in the top 10 and Western Sydney University holding on to the number one spot. Canada and the U.K. both have two institutions in the top 10, and Denmark and the U.S. one each.
But while the U.S. dominates conventional university rankings, the Impact Rankings show a very different picture, with American higher education not only struggling but going backwards.
Although Arizona State University (Tempe) takes ninth spot and Florida International University makes the leap from 100th spot to 13th, these very much run against the overall trend.
With 58 U.S. universities taking part in the rankings, just four make the top 100 — down from seven last year — and just 11 in the top 200.
“Some American universities are doing well in a number of key areas, showing real leadership on the vital issue of sustainability, particularly Arizona State University (Tempe),” said Baty.
“However, given the breadth, depth and resources of higher education in the country, and their global leadership in university research, we expected to see more American institutions come forward and demonstrate their commitment to supporting a sustainable future for all, and in addition, doing better in the ranking.”
Showcasing and spreading good practice could help provide the impetus for more American universities to step up next year, he added.
A total of 2,152 universities from 125 countries took part in the rankings, up from 1,705 last year.
The top 10 in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024, with last year’s position in brackets, are:
1 (1) Western Sydney University (Australia)
=2 (2) University of Manchester (U.K.)
=2 (5) University of Tasmania (Australia)
4 (9) Aalborg University (Denmark)
5 (=7) RMIT University (Australia)