Uppsala University 26th in sustainability ranking

The University of Toronto, Canada, tops the list. In second place is ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Lund University in Sweden ties for third place with the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.

Uppsala University is ranked 26th, a drop of 15 places compared with last year.

“Among Swedish higher education institutions, only Lund University ranks higher and a total of more than 1,700 institutions are ranked, so 26th place should still be regarded as a fine achievement,” comments Emma Östlund, Controller in the University Administration, Uppsala University.

Three overarching categories

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a commercial operator with headquarters in London that has published the QS World University Rankings since 2004. QS launched its first Sustainability Ranking in 2022.

The ranking is divided into three overarching categories: environmental impact, social impact and governance.

• In environmental impact, Uppsala University comes in 29th place overall.
• In social impact, Uppsala University is ranked 57th.
• In governance, Uppsala University comes 13th.

The first two categories are subdivided into three and five ‘lenses’ respectively, each of which in turn consists of several indicators. Uppsala University has lost some ground in most of the lenses, but still ends up in the top 100 in all except three: environmental sustainability (115), equality (130), and employability and opportunities (196).

Highest ranking in environmental research

The lenses where the University is ranked highest are environmental research, health and wellbeing, and environmental education.

The results are based on factors including self-reported data from Uppsala University, research data via Elsevier and reputation measurements conducted by QS. Other sources of data are used to support the rankings, including the United Nations, the World Bank, UNESCO and Yale University.

Annica Hulth