This page relates to the pilot edition of the QS Sustainability Ranking. For the current methodology, please visit here.
Achieving Gender Equality has been expressly identified as a critical goal for our world. The UN's Sustainable Development Goals have a stand-alone goal for this (SDG 5). According to the UN, "Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world."
Moreover, reduced inequalities more broadly has also been identified as an urgent goal for humanity. This is identified in SDG 10. According to the UN, "Reducing inequalities and ensuring no one is left behind are integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Inequality within and among countries is a persistent cause for concern."
This lens assesses a university's efforts to instill not only a climate of gender equality, but of reduced inequalities more widely - including discrimination based on other personal characteristics such as sexual orientation, disability, race and wealth.
With the same principle in mind as many of the other performance lenses in this ranking, we also take into account performance at a national level. It is our collective duty to ensure that students, who use rankings, get a rounded and realistic view of the equalities environment not only at the university they will study at, but in the country in which they will potentially spend several years.
We aggregate the following data to produce a score: research being done by institutions in relevant SDG's, the operational activities of the institution, student and staff gender ratios, and national-level statistics on equality.
Weight of metrics in Equality:
| Metric | Weight (In the lens / Overall) |
| Research Impact into SDG's for Equality | 33.3% / 5% |
| Student Gender Ratio | 13.3% / 2% |
| Faculty Gender Ratio | 13.3% / 2% |
| Women in Leadership Ratio | 6.7% / 1% |
| Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy | 6.7% / 1% |
|
Academic Equality (Staff View) |
6.7% / 1% |
|
Office for Disability Support |
6.7% / 1% |
|
Equality National Statistics |
13.3% / 2% |
Research Impact of SDGs for Equality
We analyse research output produced by institutions, classified by Elsevier as research in SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). A score from 0 to 100 per SDG is produced using this methodology, and then averaged into an overall score, subject to at least one of the two mentioned SDG scores being 5 or higher.
Student Gender Ratio
We collect:
- Total number of students in the institution
- Total number of male students
The % of non-male students are calculated. If an institution does not submit data, then the location minimum is checked, if the location has less than 5 institutions in the location, then we use regional averages.
Faculty Gender Ratio
We collect:
- Number of faculty in the institution
- Number of Male faculty
The % of non-male faculty are calculated. If an institution does not submit data, then the location minimum is checked, if the location has less than 5 institutions in the location, then regional averages are used.
Women in Leadership Ratio
We collect:
- Number of people in leadership positions in the institution
- Number of males in leadership positions in the institution
The % of non-male leaders are calculated. If an institution does not submit data, then the location minimum is checked, if the location has less than 5 institutions in the location, then regional averages are used.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy
Each institution provides a public link to their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policy, QS validates the links, once validated the institution gets a score of 0 or 100.
Academic Equality (Staff View)
As part of QS Academic Reputation Survey, we ask respondents about what institution they are affiliated with and three specific questions on to what extent their institution:
- has specific measures in place to support employees with disabilities;
- is committed to supporting LGBT+ equality;
- is committed to supporting gender equality.
Institutions which meet the response rate threshold receive a non-zero score for Academic Equality (Staff View) averaged across all responses per question, with all three questions carrying same weight in our analysis. To avoid a low number effect, institutions with eligible but still low response rates are damped on a sliding scale.
Office for Disability Support
Each institution provides a public link to their office for disability support, QS validates the links, once validated the institution gets a score of 0 or 100.
Equality National Statistics
We average the following data points:
- Gender pay gap from the Sustainable Development Report (scaled to 1-100)
- Ratio of Women in the workforce from the Sustainable Development Report (scaled to 1-100)
- Seats held by women in parliament from the Sustainable Development Report (scaled to 1-100)
- Ratio of Education Achieved from the Sustainable Development Report (scaled to 1-100)
- Palma Index from the Sustainable Development Report (scaled to 1-100)
- LGBT Global Acceptance Index from UCLA (scaled to 1-100)
We provide a 2% boost to the score of the location if they have signed the UN declaration against Racism. The final score after the boost is then normalised and scaled from 1-100