Cambridge University plummets in world university sustainability rankings

The place of the University of Cambridge in QS’s World Sustainability Rankings has dropped dramatically over the past three years.

While Cambridge ranked 19th in 2023, this fell sharply to 129th in 2024, and has now plummeted even further, to 195th in 2025.

Cambridge has also dropped in the overall QS World University Rankings, from 2nd in 2023 and 2024, to 5th in 2025.

The university’s overall sustainability score was just 84.8/100, scoring 61.3/100 on environment sustainability, 82.5/100 on environmental education, and 82.8/100 on environmental research.

The top ranking UK university for sustainability was UCL, which ranked fifth, while Cambridge beat its long-time rival Oxford, which ranked 199th.

Cambridge University is a signatory of the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice, which binds its members to “ensure research and innovation is carried out in an environmentally sustainable way”, and “establish new ways of working”, to “deliver world-leading impact in research and innovation using a climate conscious, low carbon approach”.

The university also states on its website that it is “taking action to improve our operational environmental performance”, with the university’s ‘Environmental Management System’ being certified to international standard ISO-14001.

A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge told The Tab Cambridge: “The University’s drop in the 2024 QS Sustainability Rankings was largely due to a change in the Rankings methodology, which introduced governance as a criteria for the first time.

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“The University Council has already announced plans to strengthen its leadership in relation to environmental sustainability. ‘Environmental Sustainability’ was recently added to the portfolio of the current Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) so that it becomes the PVC (Education and Environmental Sustainability). The PVC will lead the development of an academic strategy that will integrate and enhance the University’s interdisciplinary research ambitions, and encompass its educational offerings and outreach activities in relation to climate and environmental sustainability.

“With regards to the environmental sustainability of its operations, the University plan is to develop, by the end of the calendar year 2025, an agreed environmental approach which is sector-leading.  This will include an ambitious strategy to achieve operational environmental sustainability, accompanied by a plan for delivery with firm, costed targets and clear KPIs against which progress can be measured, and a clarified and strengthened governance structure to oversee progress.”