Strathclyde Ranks Joint 25th Globally for Contribution to Sustainable Development Goals
THE’s Impact Rankings 2024 puts Strathclyde at joint 25th in the world out of 1,963 universities included in the overall ranking, and 4th in the UK.
The rankings are the first and only global performance tables that assess universities against the SDGs and focus on the dual issues of protecting the environment and addressing inequality through sustainable development.
Substantial increase
A total of 2,031 institutions submitted data towards the one compulsory category – SDG 17 Partnership for the Goals – with 1,963 submitting at least a further three categories in order to be included in the overall rankings; Strathclyde submitted results for all 17 SDGs.
A university’s total score is calculated by combining its score in SDG17 with its best three results on the remaining 16. This means that different universities are scored based on a different set of SDGs, depending on their focus. The score for the overall ranking is an average of the last two years’ total scores.
Strathclyde’s top performing SDGs were:
- SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – 22nd out of 825 institutions
- SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – joint 35th out of 1,086 institutions
- SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals – joint 45th out of 2,031 institutions
- SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities – joint 51st out of 1,108 institutions
Strathclyde garnered a total of 94.1 points – up from 92.5 last year – with this improved position set against a substantial increase in the number of participating institutions.
Strong focus
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, said: “Our founding ethos at Strathclyde is as ‘a place of useful learning’ and we put this into practice every day, particularly when it comes to tackling the major challenge of our age which is to address and deliver against the UN SDGs.
“Strathclyde’s Strategy commits us to actively placing education for sustainable development at the heart of all our programmes. We also use the SDGs to articulate how our research expertise supports our socially progressive approach to our mission of making a positive difference to the lives of our students, to society, the economy and to the world at large.
I am delighted to see our strong focus on addressing the SDGs, alongside our international partners, reflected in these rankings.
The SDGs, adopted by the UN in 2015, provide a framework for developing the world in a sustainable way and seek to address: ending poverty and hunger; promoting good health and wellbeing; quality education; achieving gender equality; economic growth; providing access to clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; and tackling climate change.
Strategic approach
Sustainability sits at the heart of the University’s Strategic Plan, Strathclyde 2030, which makes a clear commitment to deliver against the SDGs across all areas of activity, including research, teaching and operational matters.
The University’s Centre for Sustainable Development, launched in 2020, serves to bring all of Strathclyde’s education, research and knowledge exchange activity on sustainable development within a single strategic approach and helps to support cross institutional collaboration.
The Centre prioritises education and awareness-raising of sustainable development, as well as applying and building expertise and research capacity in sustainability. It also grows international partnership working and contributes to and benefits from knowledge sharing and thought leadership.