Good governance has been recognized as vital if countries are to pursue and meet the sustainable development goals. They will require strong leadership, transparent and evidence-based decision making, democratic and open justice and the willingness to transfer power out of central government to local centers.
The same is true at an institutional level. For a university to meet the same challenges, they also require good leadership, a democratic process of appointing their leadership, open and documented decision making, and power not only in the hands of the executive, but across the institution and including the students that they serve. The following metrics of the good governance lens take different elements of best practice in this area - the centrality of ethics, good hiring practices, open decision making, a student's union and so forth, and aggregate them to form the overall score for this lens.
| Code | Metric | Metric Weight |
| GG1 | Ethics Culture |
1% |
| GG2 | Open-Access Publishing | 1% |
| GG3 | Dedicated staff / team for Sustainable Development | 1% |
| GG4 | Transparent financial reporting | 1% |
| GG5 | Student's Union | 1% |
| GG6 | Student Representation in Governance | 1% |
| GG7 | Published governance minutes | 1% |
| GG8 | National Signatory to UN charter against torture | 1% |
| GG9 | Staff perception on institutional ethics | 1% |
| GG10 | Policy Citations (Governance) | 1% |
GG1. Ethics Culture
Does your organisation support and facilitate a holistic ethical organisational culture?
Conducting research, teaching and employment with an established ethics policy is a key part of good governance. Scores are awarded to each of the four items below where evidence has been provided and validated by the QS team.
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG1.1 | The university develops clear ethical values (e.g., diversity, honesty, respect, fairness) and these are enshrined in a publicly available strategic document | 0 or 100 |
| GG1.2 | The university provides training based on those values at all levels of the organization | 0 or 100 |
| GG1.3 | There is an office for ethical compliance within our institution, with a designated official with oversight on ethical matters across the institution | 0 or 100 |
| GG1.4 | Our organization has an internal reporting system to assure the confidentiality of whistleblowers or a grievance procedure for staff concerning an employment matter | 0 or 100 |
| GG1.5 | Existence of anti-bribery and corruption policy or equivalent | 0 or 100 |
| GG1.6 | Policy has been updated in the past 3 years | 0 or 100 |
| GG1.7 | Do you have an equality, diversity and inclusion committee, office or officer (or the equivalent) tasked by the administration or governing body to advise on and implement policies, programmes and trainings related to diversity, equity, inclusion and human rights on campus? | 0 or 100 |
GG2. Open-Access Publishing
| Sub metric | Description | Scoring |
|
GG2.1
|
The proportion of an institution's overall research output that is available as open access (OA), as per the Unpaywall database. A higher weight is applied to Gold and Hybrid papers and lower weight to Green papers that available as preprints only (see Unpaywall's definitions). Institutions with low OA paper counts have a reduced OA ratio on a sliding scale up to 4 times the global median paper count. The above analysis is performed on our standard 5 faculty areas, plus the new Multidisciplinary area (ASJC code 1000) that appears to be one of the main OA contributors. Six resulting ratios are aggregated into a weighted sum, where the weights are based on the share of OA papers in the given faculty area compared to the total amount of OA papers (the lower the share, the higher the value of an OA paper in the faculty area). As in our other Faculty Area Normalisation technique, the highest weight goes to Arts & Humanities, followed by Multidisciplinary and Social Sciences & Management. All underlying data is collected through Elsevier's 5-years Scopus snapshot, subject to the same paper filters used in our other evaluation projects in the same rankings cycle. |
A scaled score of the final aggregated index between 0 and 100 |
Open access is a growing global trend that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications (e.g., journal articles, books) and data. A publication is defined 'open access' when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it – in other words when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it for educational purposes or in any other way within the legal agreements. The principles of open access are set out in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003).
GG3. Dedicated Staff for Sustainable Development
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG3.1 | Evidence that the university has a dedicated staff member or team whose sole responsibility is to advance sustainable development at the institution. | 0 or 100 |
GG4. Transparent Financial Reporting
Financial transparency is integral to good governance. It allows both internal and external stakeholders an insight into the financial health of the institution, its responsibility with those finances, its income dependencies and its spending priorities. For examples of good practice in this area, you may wish to look at the annual reports of the University of Auckland, University of Glasgow and University of New South Wales, all of which publish comprehensive financial statements.
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG4.1 |
A public financial report (which may be included in the annual report) that lists, but is not necessarily limited to, the following:
This should be for the last full financial year. If this is not yet available, we will accept reports up to a maximum of 3 years old. |
0 or 100 |
GG5. Student's Union
The ability of students to organize themselves into a union with elected representatives is a sign that a university is committed to the democratic voice of their student population. Student unions come in different names and structures. Scores are awarded for each of the three items below where evidence has been provided and validated by the QS team.
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG5.1 | The university has a recognized student union that represents both undergraduate and postgraduate students at university level. Its activities would include: representing the interests of students, acting as a liaison between students and university management, organizing students events, and other student support functions. | GG5.1 is required to receive any score in this metric. Scores are then awarded for GG5.2 and GG5.3, which can lead to total score of 100. |
| GG5.2 | The student union is connected/affiliated to a wider national student union body | 0 or 50 |
| GG5.3 | The student union elects its leadership, allowing students to vote. | 0 or 50 |
GG6. Student Representation on Governing Body
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG6.1 | Does the university's governing body (senate / court /equivalent) have a seat for a student member. | 0 or 100 |
GG7. Published governance minutes.
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG7.1 |
Does the university publish the minutes of its annual (or equivalent) governance meetings?
Note: these minutes do not need to reveal confidential information or be exhaustive, but should provide readers with a sense of who attended those meetings, the topics for discussion, and any major action points. |
0 or 100 |
GG8. National Signatory to UN treaty against torture and the elimination of racism
| Sub metric | Description | Scoring |
| GG8.1 |
A signatory to the convention against torture* A signatory to the elimination of racism* *In certain cases, we have looked towards national legislation which meets the UN treaty's aims, without being an explicit signatory. |
0 or 50 for each, for a total of 100 |
GG9. Staff perception
| Sub metric | Description | Scoring |
| GG9 |
In our academic survey, we ask participants to rate their agreement with the statement: "My university acts ethically in its teaching, its research, and its contribution to society" |
An average score is calculated for each institution, ranging from 1 to 5. To ensure accurate assessments, scores are adjusted using a sliding scale when the number of responses is insufficient. Institutions with a negligible response rate are assigned a minimum score based on their country/territory. Later on the figures are z-scored and scaled between 0 and 100. |
GG10. Policy Citations (Governance)
| Sub metric | Information Sought | Scoring |
| GG10.1 |
Policy Citation score for SDG 16 (Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions). |
Policy Citation score is calculated using this methodology. |