SZTE ranked on the new Quacquarelli Symonds Higher Education Sustainability List

Photo: Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify

Quacquarelli Symonds, the British company specializing in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world, compiled a sustainability ranking for the first time this year. The QS list, published on 26 October, includes around 700 institutions worldwide, 303 in Europe, and only 3 in Hungary.

Overall, SZTE ranks between 381 and 400th on the sustainability list, and also scores highly on the performance indicators used to compile the list - it ranks as the best Hungarian institution in terms of the impact of education, sharing of knowledge, equal opportunities and quality of life.

About the QS Sustainability Rankings List

The new QS Sustainability Rankings List has been developed with experts from around 20 countries and is based on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), taking into account data from other QS rankings, baseline data from institutions, Elsevier, UNESCO, and the World Bank, amongst others.

The ranking focuses on the social and environmental impact of universities as centers of teaching, research, and knowledge, and these two categories have equal weight in the overall ranking.

The Social Impact subcategory covers the institutions' contribution to preparing students for the labor market (20%), the equal opportunities dimension (30%), the promotion and provision of a good quality of life (well-being and prosperity) (10%), the social impact of educational activities (20%), and the use and sharing of knowledge in research collaborations (20%).

The subcategory Environmental Impact includes aspects of educational and research activities with a focus on environmental awareness and sustainability, academic recognition (40%), sustainable institutional functioning and commitment (35%), and research in areas related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (25%).

Source: University of Szeged