UCL ranked in top 10 in the UK in QS Sustainability Rankings 2023

The QS Sustainability Rankings 2023 has been released. It reportedly measured “an institution’s ability to tackle the world’s greatest environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges.”

Imperial College London and UCL managed to rank amongst the top 10 in the UK, taking 9th and 10th place, respectively.

And just three London unis can be found amongst the global top 100, with Imperial at the 40th, UCL at the 42nd, and LSE at the 59th place. 

Data source: QS Sustainability Rankings 2023

The QS Sustainability rankings assessed the following for environmental impact: whether an institution is committed to achieving net zero emissions through things like record-keeping and international climate actions (“sustainable institution”), whether there is adequate teaching on sustainability (“sustainable education”), and whether the uni funds research on this topic (“sustainable research”).

A uni’s overall position was also informed by indicators of social impact, including how active it is in fostering equality and diversity.

London unis were vastly outperformed in the ranking overall by other UK unis like The University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Oxford, which formed the podium nationally.

But regarding individual indicators, LSE topped all UK unis in the “sustainable institution” category, with a near-perfect score of 99.7.

And while both Imperial and UCL scored relatively low on many of the sustainability indicators, they were ranked quite well in “sustainable research,” with respective scores of 93.4 and 93.

With sustainability and climate action being more important now than ever, the QS Sustainability Rankings can hopefully make unis more conscious of the role they need to fulfil when facing the climate crisis.

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