The QS World University Rankings: Sustainability provides students with a unique lens on which institutions are demonstrating a commitment to a more sustainable existence. More than just the commitment, it looks for outwards evidence of this - from the impact that alumni are making in science and technology to solve climate issues, to the impact of research being done across the UN's 17 sustainable development goals. It evaluates the social and environmental impact of universities as a center's of education and research, as well as a major employers with the operational sustainability challenges of any large and complex organisation.
The Ranking has two categories: Environmental Impact and Social Impact, and a governance boost. Each of these categories is worth 50%, which is then combined.
The governance boost is then added and the results are rescaled from 1-100 to form the overall score and rank. Within each category are different performance lenses. Click below to explore these.
|
Category |
Overall Weight |
| 50% | |
| Environmental Impact | 50% |
Eligibility and Inclusion
To be eligible for this ranking in its current form the following condition was applied:
| Intent | Explanation | |
| 1 | WUR presence | Institutions had to be included in the previous QS World University Ranking. This allowed us to first compare 'like for like', as we do in other rankings, before reviewing how and whether we expand this criteria in subsequent editions. |
To be included in this ranking, two further criteria were applied:
| Intent | Explanation | |
| 1 | Commitment to mitigate climate crisis | We have looked for evidence that a university has a policy or strategy on how they will mitigate the impact of their operations on the climate and the environment. From our experience, this typically takes the form of a standalone policy document, or a significant addition to their overall mission and strategy documents. |
| 2 | Evidence of a research culture aligned with the UN's SDGs | A minimum threshold of SDG research was set. Institutions must demonstrate a non-zero score in 'Research Impact on SDGs for Sustainable Research' (Environmental Impact category) and in at least 2 out of 4 SDG research metrics in the Social Impact category (see the individual lenses for this category). |