QS World University Rankings: Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability - ES2: Member of an officially recognised sustainable group

• CANIE (the Climate Action Network for International Educators) has been added to the list of recognised sustainable groups

Employment and Opportunities - EO3: Job Preparedness (Graduates View)

• This indicator has been removed from the methodology
• The 1% weighting has been reassigned to EO1: Employer Reputation
  

Research for the World University Rankings begins in September and the Rankings are published in June.

Data Collection

In each of our rankings we use a range of measurements as part of our methodology. These can be split into three broad groups​.

Each ranking is made up of a different group of measurements, with some being used across several rankings and others unique to one project.

Category

Used in Sustainability, we use three Categories to group lenses together: Environmental Impact, Social Impact, and Governance

Lens

A group of Indicators which are related to the same theme.

Indicator

A measurement of one aspect of an institution’s performance. Institutions are scored and ranked within indicators and those indicator scores contribute to its overall rank and score​.

Metric

A more specific calculation that forms part of an Indicator​.

Below you can find the Categories, Lenses, and Indicators used in this ranking.

Weightings are reviewed on an annual basis.

Click on each measurement for more detailed information.

Not all higher education institutions are eligible for our rankings, and not all eligible institutions are ranked. Below you can find the criteria for institutions.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Sustainability Rankings an institution must be eligible for one or all of the following:

• QS World University Rankings
• QS Rankings by Region
• QS Rankings by Subject

Business Schools are not currently eligible.

Inclusion

To be included in the Sustainability Rankings an institution must:

• Possess a non-zero score in 'Research Impact on SDGs for Environmental Research (Environmental Impact category)
• Possess a non-zero score in at least 2 out of 4 SDG research metrics in the Social Impact category

1. EO2 - Research Impact on SDGs for Employment and Opportunities
2. EQ1 - Research Impact on SDGs for Equality
3. HW1 - Research Impact of SDGs for Health and Wellbeing
4. IE1 - Research Impact on SDGs for Education

All institutions can submit data for the rankings. This data is important in ensuring our rankings are as accurate as possible.

You should submit data for your institution through our QS HUB platform. Please contact our Institution Support Team via our helpdesk if you do not have login details, or need further support.

Our rankings are not opt-in/opt-out, so it is in an institution's best interest to ensure that we reflect them accurately by submitting their data.

Where we don’t have data submitted by an institution, we feature them on the strength of proprietary and publicly available or previously supplied data. Our rankings are designed with this in mind.

If you would like your institution to be considered for inclusion in the Rankings and your institution has not received a submission email, please contact: rankings@qs.com.

Data Reporting Period

For the majority of the data we request, the reporting period should cover the academic year previous to our rankings cycle.

This will be approximately January to December for the Southern Hemisphere, and August to July for the Northern Hemisphere.

There are exceptions to this, so please refer to our data dictionary if you are unsure.

Additional Data

Some data that we ask for is not immediately used in the weighted indicators but it is important for us to collect so that may assess whether it can be included in the methodology in the future.

It also allows us to create a useable volume of data covering several years that can be introduced into the process when required.

We encourage all institutions to submit all the data they are able to so that the rankings can continue to evolve.

In Sustainability the following additional data is asked for:

Assessment tool

• The presence of an assessment tool - such as TASK™ by Sulitest - in assessing the knowledge of staff and students
• TASK™ enables organizations to measure the sustainability knowledge of their community through a psychometric, multiple-choice question assessment covering a comprehensive scope of sustainability-related subjects.

Energy consumption

• The institution's annual energy consumption in kilowatt hours (kWh)

Scope 3 emissions

• The total Scope 3 carbon emissions in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)
• Scope 3 emissions are those created by activities from assets not owned or controlled by the institution, but that the institution indirectly affects in its value chain. 
• This can include emissions from staff commuting or from suppliers

Student scholarship numbers

• The numbers of students with scholarships covering 50% or 100% of their fees

Sustainability training

• The existence of mandatory annual training on environmental and social aspects of sustainability

Water consumption

• The institution's annual water consumption in cubic metres (m3)