One of the primary missions of a university is to teach. Education helps equip citizens to make informed and balanced decisions, and provides them with a foundational knowledge across subject areas all of which support a nation's development.
This lens assesses how institutions are educating students to both understand and make a difference specifically to the environment. It combines: academic reputation in Earth and Marine Sciences & Environmental Science; Alumni Impact data on those who go on to drive policy and third-sector work in the environment; presence of environmental research centres and available curriculum on climate related subjects. The following metrics are aggregated to form the final score for this lens.
Weights of metrics for Environmental Education:
| Code | Metric | Weight (In the lens / Overall) |
| EE1 | Academic Reputation in Earth & Environment | - |
| EE2 | Alumni Impact for Environmental Sustainability - Public and Third Sector | - |
| EE3 | Climate Science and/or Sustainability Courses | - |
EE1 Academic Reputation for Sustainable Education
Metric: The averaged score of the following data points. An academic reputation in the specific subject is non-zero if the institution is eligible for that subject and included in that subject (see eligibility and inclusion criteria for QS World University Rankings by Subject).
| Data Point | Definition |
| EE1.1 | Academic Reputation from most recently published subject ranking in Earth and Marine Sciences |
| EE1.2 | Academic Reputation from most recently published subject ranking in Environmental Sciences |
EE2 Alumni Impact for Environmental Sustainability - Public and Third Sector
Alumni Impact is a well-known metric used in QS Global MBA and Business Masters Rankings, as well as a featured component of the Employment Outcomes indicator in QS World University Rankings. This particular metric looks at the impact of its graduates in the public sector (government) and the third sector (charities and NGOs). Compare with Metric ES1 which looks at the impact of an institution's graduates in the corporate sector on the environment.
| Data Point | Definition | Scoring |
| EE2.1 | Scaled score on Alumni Impact, filtered only for relevant awards and lists that focus on the impact a university's graduates in the public sector (government) and the third sector (charities and NGOs). Lists such as "Champions of the Earth" by UN, "Blue Planet Prize" by Asahi Glass Foundation are used here. | A scaled score between 0 and 100. |
EE3 Climate Science and/or Sustainability Courses
The emphasis and resource that an institution puts towards climate literacy can be assessed through the variety of courses on offer, and what those courses lead to. In this metric, institutions must provide evidence of the following. Points for each will be 0 or 100 depending on whether this information has been provided and whether it has been validated.
| Data Point | Information Sought | Scoring |
| EE3.1 | Availability of courses on the environment / climate science / environmental sustainability | 0 or 100 |
| EE3.2 | The courses lead to officially recognized credits | 0 or 100 |
| EE3.3 | They lead to the award of an officially recognized qualification that specifically refers to climate science and environmental sustainability (e.g., MSc in Climate Change: Science, Society and Solutions at the University of Manchester in the UK; BSc in Climate Science and Adaptation at the University of Newcastle Australia) | 0 or 100 |