Wageningen University & Research: THE Impact Ranking: WUR rises to 65th place

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) moved up to the 65th place in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking. This annual ranking assesses how organisations across the globe score with regard to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were formulated in 2015. This year, the THE ranked over 1400 universities from all over the world according to their contribution to the SDGs.

WUR ranked somewhere between places 200 and 300 in last year’s list. This year shows a considerable improvement, which is primarily the result of the fact that Wageningen University is better able to detail precisely how its programmes include the seventeen sustainability goals in their curriculum.

Better picture
Wageningen’s research and education have always focused on sustainable solutions. It required some additional inventorying to make this sufficiently visible for the THE ranking. Dean of education Arnold Bregt and his team have invested considerable efforts over the past year to clarify the link between all the study programmes and the UN sustainability goals. This resulted in a better position in the ranking and has additional benefits.

Five SDG’s
In this ranking, WUR is linked to four of the total of seventeen sustainability goals: SDG2 Zero Hunger, SDG12 Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG13 Climate Action and SDG15 Life on land. Moreover, information was provided for the obligatory SDG17 Partnerships. WUR aims to partcipate in the next THE Impact Ranking with additional goals.

WUR’s score per SDG in the 2022 THE Impact Ranking:

SDG 13 Climate Action, 3rd place (2021: 25th place)
SDG 2 Zero Hunger, 22nd place (2021: 27th place)
SDG 15 Life on land, 33rd place (2021: between 101-200)
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, 44th (2021: between 101-200)
SDG 17 Partnership for the goals, between 101-200 (2021: between 301-400)