This page relates to the pilot edition of the QS Sustainability Ranking. For the current methodology, please visit here.
Everything begins with education. To be able to advance as a society, to spur technological innovation, to reduce discrimination and to unlock the potential of all people, a comprehensive and accessible education is imperative. This has been expressly identified by the UN as critical to our collection sustainable development. This is the goal of SDG 4. The UN writes that we must "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all."
This lens assesses the education provision and quality of certain subjects at the institution which we believe have the greatest potential to positively impact society: Education, Politics, Social Policy, Law, Art & Design. It also looks at research into relevant SDG's and alumni impact in the education sector.
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 higher education quality not only at the university they will study at, but in the country in which they will potentially spend several years.
Weights of metrics in Impact of Education:
| Metric | Weight (In the lens / Overall) |
| Research Impact into SDGs for Education | 40% / 4% |
| Academic Reputation for Impact of Education | 20% / 2% |
| Alumni Impact for Education | 20% / 2% |
| Academic Freedom Index | 10% / 1% |
| Impact of Education National Statistics |
10% / 1% |
Research Impact of SDGs in Impact of Education
We analyse research output produced by institutions, classified by Elsevier as research in SDG 4 (Quality Education). A score from 0 to 100 is produced using this methodology.
Academic Reputation for Impact of Education
This is a score of an institution by our Academic Reputation indicator, used in QS World University Rankings by Subject. Academic reputation in the following subjects is averaged:
- Education;
- Politics;
- Social Policy;
- Law;
- Art & Design.
An academic reputation in the specific subject is non-zero if institution is eligible for that subject and included in that subject (see eligibility and inclusion criteria for QS World University Rankings by Subject).
Alumni Impact for Education
Alumni Outcomes is our well-known metric used in QS Global MBA and Business Masters Rankings, as well as part of Employment Outcomes indicator in QS World University Rankings. In order to estimate the Alumni Impact for Education, we used only relevant awards / lists such as Nobel or Wolf Prize, Turing Award, and similar awards for social and educational impact. We also analysed the alma-mater of Top 10 most cited researchers by subject in every of 5 faculty areas (as defined by QS), as per SciVal that provides this report for papers published in the most recent last 5 years.
Academic Freedom Index
We take the score from the Academic Freedom Index (data available here). This is produced by the Global Public Policy Institute in conjunction with Scholars at Risk, and indicates how free and open a country's research culture is, and whether its academics can pursue research without threat or sanction.
Impact of Education National Statistics
We average the following data points:
- Inbound mobility rate from UNESCO (scaled to 1-100)
- Graduation ratio from tertiary education from UNESCO (scaled to 1-100)
- Education expenditure from World Bank (scaled to 1-100)
The score is normalised and scaled from 1-100