By HolonIQ — Jan 7, 2005

🚀 QS Midweek Brief #47 | How Sustainable Is Your Institution?

In this week’s QS Midweek Brief to launch the rankings, we reflect on how sustainability itself is powering the rankings.

Welcome! Today, we launch the latest QS Sustainability rankings. Since it’s first release in 2022, the intention of the rankings has been to inform and guide the sector on how to engage with sustainability on campus and beyond. In this week’s QS Midweek Brief to launch the rankings, we reflect on how sustainability itself is powering the rankings.

With a deadline of 2030, the SDGs expiration date is fast approaching. We also look at where we should go next.

Stay insightful,

Anton John Crace
Editor-in-Chief
QS Quacquarelli Symonds

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Sustainability is Powering the Future of Rankings

By Nick Harland

How exactly do you rank universities, anyway? There has never been an easy answer to this question, and you probably shouldn’t expect one anytime soon. One of the problems, of course, is that each student has a different way of evaluating universities. Some prioritise a job afterwards. Others prefer to focus on student experience. And many see it as a way to meet new people and expand their horizons. Each perspective is equally valid.

But new ways of evaluating universities are always emerging. Nowadays, students aren’t just looking for a university that’ll provide them with a solid career and well-paid job. Now, they also want an institution that shares their values and will give them greater meaning in life. One way of judging that is through a school’s commitment to sustainability.

The QS Sustainability Ranking is part of a new wave of rankings that aims to measure that commitment. Now in its third year, it ranks universities based on their environmental impact, social impact and governance. It flips the script on traditional measures, reflecting what students are looking for in 2025 and beyond.

“Our sustainability ranking was born out of the research we've been doing with students over a number of years,” explains Leigh Kamolins, Director of Analytics and Evaluation at QS. “We found that students are starting to look into what universities and business schools are doing, to make sure they're going somewhere that is making some sort of positive impact on the world. This was the background to why we created a sustainability ranking.”

This year’s ranking is the biggest yet, with 1,400 universities taking part - up from 700 in the first edition. Kamolins says that it is the ‘most complex’ that QS does. The environmental component of the ranking is made up of three main lenses: education, research and sustainability. Some of the most important indicators include the school’s volume of green-focused research, their reputation for sustainable education and the impact of alumni in the environmental sector.

But it’s not just QS who are placing a greater focus on measures like these. In 2019, Times Higher Education (THE) launched their University Impact Ranking, which measures schools against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Meanwhile, the Financial Times have incorporated a range of sustainability indicators into their business schools rankings in recent years. Schools are now judged on whether they’ve set a net zero target, whether they’ve had a recent carbon audit, how much ESG content is taught within curriculums, and how closely aligned faculty research is with the UN SDGs.

The Financial Times’ Global Business Education Editor Andrew Jack agrees that sustainability is a growing concern for students - and that is now being reflected in the rankings. "Certainly, an awful lot of students are increasingly focused on societal impact and values in what they want to study and where they want to work afterwards,” he explains. “And on the business school side of things they're probably the biggest demander of change.”

It’s a sentiment backed up by statistics. According to the 2024 GMAC Prospective Students Survey, 68 percent of prospective business school students say the sustainability of an institution is important to them, whilst 36 percent of those students say they wouldn't consider a school that doesn't prioritise sustainability.

Away from the major providers, a number of standalone sustainability rankings have also started to emerge. Like the QS Sustainability Ranking, they eschew traditional indicators and rank schools based on modern student concerns.

The Corporate Knights Better World MBA ranking is one of the oldest, having first been published in 2004. Their methodology is fairly straightforward: it measures the proportion of sustainability courses embedded within an MBA programme. In 2024 an extra indicator measuring alumni impact in the environmental sector was added, though this doesn’t affect the final ranking.

The latest to appear is the Positive Impact Rating, which was launched in 2020. Intriguingly, it doesn’t rank business schools in numerical order. Instead, schools are grouped into different tiers of societal impact. This lessens the impact that small changes make to a ranking and could represent an interesting route forward for traditional university rankings.

On the face of it, this all sounds very straightforward. Students want to assess schools based on their environmental credentials, and these rankings are giving them a chance to do it. The problem? Assessing a school’s green credentials is much easier said than done.

"It requires a balance between what is and what isn't possible to measure,” says Kamolins, adding that it’s often necessary to cross-check a school’s claims using multiple sources. "Is what they're reporting to us consistent with what we're finding in other databases? If what they're claiming is inconsistent, we always seek some sort of evidence to support their claims."

One example of the challenge facing ranking providers is the world of ESG reports. They’re not standardised, which can lead to huge variation in how schools report their carbon footprint. They also don’t tend to be audited by accredited bodies, leaving ranking providers to authorise the data themselves.

Jack agrees that the lack of consistency in the sector is something that needs to be addressed. "There would be value in more consistent metrics, core metrics and standards that could be put together,” he says, “because there's so much [variation] in that space." This variation also means it can be difficult to compare schools side-by-side.

Even the Positive Impact Report, which uses a simpler methodology based on student questionnaires, faces challenges. Without any quantifiable measures, opinions and surveys can be inconsistent and inaccurate. And whilst the Corporate Knights methodology is even simpler, it arguably doesn’t go far enough when assessing the ‘greenness’ of a school.

Change is coming, however. ESG reports will soon be standardised in the UK and European Union, much like a company’s financial accounts already are. This will help students to compare green credentials side-by-side, and maybe make the work of rankings providers a little easier. But it’s the first step of a long journey towards climate transparency.

Clearly there’s still no easy way to measure a school’s carbon footprint. However, there is a growing belief among ranking providers that they could at the very least help to drive behavioural change amongst schools. After all, if a greater commitment to sustainability helps them climb the rankings, schools are unlikely to turn that opportunity down.

"I think there's a sense that we would see a value in schools, institutions, universities doing more in this space,” says Jack. “So yes, it's showcasing, it's highlighting, it's encouraging sharing of best practices. But it's also nudging business schools, amongst others, to be more focused on sustainable or responsible business education going forwards."

Kamolins agrees that issues around sustainability are becoming a priority for schools as well as students. “It's probably only the last five to ten years where it has really been a hot topic of discussion. Before that it felt a bit secondary to everything else that was going on. Now addressing these issues seems to be one of the purposes of most universities.”

As it becomes easier to measure a school’s carbon footprint, rankings will play a vital role in shaping the behaviour of universities and influencing student decision-making. But as Jack admits, they’re never going to be perfect. It’s important to acknowledge those limitations whilst still recognising the value they can bring to students and schools.

"Rankings should only be one of a number of factors that you're looking at,” he says. “And as we've always said, they should only ever be part of a wider decision-making process for students."

Nick is a freelance copywriter, writer and founder of Big Bang Copy. As a freelancer, he has written content for Specsavers, Numan, Ricoh, Hearst and many more. He specialises in education, healthcare and music, but has written about everything from financial services to luxury travel. In 2021, he founded the copywriting agency Big Bang Copy. He works with a small network of freelancers on bigger copywriting projects such as website rewrites or marketing campaigns.

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Revitalising the SDGs

By Deborah McAllister, Global Vice-President for CANIE and Laura Lightfinch

As we move closer to the final years of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is clear the world is not on track to achieve these ambitious goals. None of the seventeen SDGs are on track to be achieved by 2030 and only an estimated 16 percent of targets are progressing (UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network). Challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, geopolitical tensions and economic instability, have exacerbated inequalities and hindered suitable and sustainable development efforts globally.

How these goals will be reframed in the coming years is yet to be determined, but the SDG framework has provided an umbrella for many sectors to enable the alignment and cohesion of strategies and initiatives across the globe. Many higher education institutions have adopted and embedded the SDGs in their operations, research, curricula and strategies. The education ecosystem has pivoted towards embracing these goals which is also reflected in the generation of students who are entering our institutions.

88 percent of prospective international student say that environmental sustainability is important to their decision-making (QS International Student Survey 2024) and 77 percent think it’s important that a university takes steps to reduce their environmental impact (QS Student Sustainability Survey 2024).

Corey Peterson is Chief Sustainability Officer at the University of Tasmania. Speaking to QS Insights Magazine, Corey says: “The UN’s SDGs are a great framework. They show how different elements in the world tie together and the prioritisations that we need to focus on. For that reason alone, they are incredibly valuable and have opened doors to conversations across many sectors.

“However, I think the chances of us succeeding in many of them are very low, especially with the political challenges taking place around the world. The SDGs are a product of their time and have been the lowest common denominator to enable every country to buy into them, but they are relatively silent on indigenous and aboriginal cultures and incredibly binary, which is a serious flaw in them.

“I think a revamp or a critical evaluation of goals in 2025 would strengthen them to refocus people’s engagement with them."

Aligning Sustainable Goals With Today’s Workforce

The narrative about sustainability has increased in prominence alongside – and sometimes overshadowing – the SDGs, reflecting the urgent and interconnected challenges posed by the combination of complex objectives articulated in the SDGs.

Aligned to this, sustainable-focused jobs and green skills have also gained prominence. While there are many definitions, green skills are widely referenced as the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society (which reduces the impact of human activity on the environment). These can be applied to any area of work and are often attributed towards green jobs – roles that contribute to, preserve, or restore the environment.

However, most jobs requiring green skills are no longer traditional sustainable jobs within industries like environmental science and engineering. These skills are increasingly being sought across the workforce, and they are in short supply.

“NU faculty and researchers have published 9,104 scientific publications indexed by Scopus since 2011. And 35 out of 51 Kazakhstani scientists in the top 2 percent of researchers according to Stanford University represent our university. Our job in PR is to tell audiences about these successes, thereby building the reputation of the university,” says Abeuova.

“Given our audience, one challenge for us is that we produce our content in three languages - English, Kazakh and Russian. But we also have to contend with stereotypes that European education is somehow superior. So the PR office runs activities such as meetings, memorandums, campus tours, conferences, and training with strategic partners, all of which help dispel these myths and clichés.”

Another young institution where PR is a key means to building reputation is the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan. Established in 2011, OIST was first envisioned in 2001 by Koji Omi, then Japan’s Minister of State, as a way to revitalise Okinawa through science, technology, and locally focused sustainable development.

“Our main challenges in increasing international recognition are our relatively short history, our modest size, and growing an alumni network,” says Director of Communications, Natsuki Matsumoto.

“We prioritize steady enhancement of our research, education, innovation, and outreach. Effectively communicating these achievements internationally, nationally, and locally, is key to building a strong reputation. For example, in 2022, OIST Adjunct Professor Svante Pääbo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He chose to establish a lab here due to OIST’s interdisciplinary environment, and this idea has proven highly attractive to potential recruits.”

Job postings for green jobs are growing nearly twice as fast as the number of workers with the skills to fill them. By 2030, the World Economic Forum predicts there will be 24 million green jobs globally, but by the same time one in five jobs will lack the green talent to fill it, according to the LinkedIn Green Skill Report 2024. By 2050, this gap will balloon to one in two jobs.

Peterson says: “10 years ago, sustainable careers were about technical skills to develop engineers, environmental scientists and energy technicians – roles in environmental fields. The career space is very different today and sustainability is embedded in every field. There are many roles now which require negotiation skills, creativity and teamwork to think critically about solutions to the world’s problems.

"Added to that, more and more students are showing that they want to work in organisations and businesses that align with their values, and a lot of those values are based around sustainable outcomes. Students need to feel like they've been empowered and feel like their ideas and thinking have actually helped to deliver something. Then they can take that out into other places and help to deliver change on a bigger scale because of the possibility they felt as part of their university experience.”

Despite the challenges in fully achieving the SDGs, the foreseeable future of the workforce remains centred around green skills. The higher education sector must strengthen the alignment between developing green workforce capabilities and the wider aims of the SDGs to create a more environmentally and socially sustainable world. By doing so, universities can ensure that graduates are not only prepared for the green economy but are also equipped to address the interconnected global challenges outlined by the SDGs, creating a holistic approach to sustainable development.

Placing green skills in the curriculum empowers universities to produce future-ready professionals equipped to lead in the transition to sustainable economies, addressing urgent global challenges like climate change and resource management while driving innovation and equity in the workforce. The CANIE Accord provides a roadmap for organisations in the international education sector to step up and act on the climate emergency.

Deborah serves as the Global Vice-President for CANIE, having taken on the position in 2023. Throughout her career, she has worked in universities peak bodies, and government agencies in both the UK and New Zealand. She currently works at Universitas 21.

As QS PR and Communications Manager, Laura works to amplify QS data and insights and thought leadership content in the global higher education sector. She also co-leads the QS LGBTQ+ Network, raising awareness of the experiences of the community and ensuring they are supported in the workplace.

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