Five members reach Top 100 in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings

On April 22, the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2020 was published. Universities in New Zealand and Australia took the top three positions of this global ranking measuring institutions’ social and economic impact. Our members in the Nordic countries also came out strong.

In this second edition of the ranking, 859 universities send in their data and 766 were ranked. This is a big increase compared to the 450 who submitted last year. The universities among our members that came out the best were Aalborg University in Denmark, and the University of Gothenburg and the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, in Sweden. Five of our members reached the Top 100. The other two are the University of Helsinki and the University of Bergen.

Last year the University of Gothenburg and KTH took the 6th and 7th position – but there is a good explanation to the lower positions this year.

– “It is still good that we are among the top 100. That we would lose positions, was in a way expected. There are many more and also more prominent universities from different parts of the world participating this year”, says Göran Finnveden, Vice-Rector for Sustainable Development at KTH in an interview at the university.

To rank sustainability is difficult. Eva Wiberg who is the the Vice-chancellor of the University of Gothenburg says in an interview that “Rankings, their methods and their indicators can always be debated”. However, a ranking also gives opportunities to improve.

– “Of course, it is a pity that the university has a lower ranking than last year, but it is gratifying that our work promoting sustainable development continues to be so highly ranked internationally. It is important that we see the ranking as an opportunity to develop and improve our work for sustainable development and to learn from the universities at the forefront. I hope that we can now double down on our systematic and diligent sustainability efforts within research, education, international collaboration and development of our campus environments”, says Eddi Omrcen, sustainability strategist at the University of Gothenburg.

More reading:

> Find your country or university in the list at the THE website.

>Strong position despite increased competition in the global sustainability ranking [In Swedish]

>KTH is one of the world’s top 100 in sustainable development [In Swedish]

>Universities shift focus towards SDGs to prove societal value

By: Nina Silow