Queen’s to participate in the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings
Queen’s is participating in a project to measure the global impact of universities across the world.
The University committed to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Principal Patrick Deane’s Report on the Conversation. The SDGs provide goals for working towards sustainability and solving issues like inequality, poverty, and the climate crisis.
To measure how the global university sector is working to meet these goals, Times Higher Education (THE) launched the THE University Impact Rankings in 2019. Deane has committed to taking part in these rankings to measure the University’s progress in meeting the SDGs.
“As we determine the new strategic framework for our university and our future, we need to consider social impact as one of our top priorities,” Deane said in a press release.
“By aligning our emerging vision with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, we will be able to develop a clear sense of social purpose for Queen’s that emphasizes the wellbeing of people and the survival of the planet.”
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Queen’s has established a Project Team and Working Group composed of staff and faculty from across the University to complete its submission. The submission will demonstrate how Queen’s is working to meet all 17 SDGs.
The University’s submission is due Nov. 30 and results are expected in April 2021.
“Taking part in the 2021 Impact Rankings demonstrates our commitment to ensuring our institution is focused on the UN SDGs—the hallmarks of which are community, sustainability, equity and internationalization efforts—all integral to our current and future state,” Deane said.
THE uses data provided by the institution and bibliometric datasets provided by data company Elsevier to evaluate each university’s submission. They also consider the various purposes of post-secondary education, like teaching, research, outreach, and stewardship.
They determine the rankings based on the three SDGs each institution scores highest in, plus the last goal: partnerships for the goals.
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“The University plans to leverage the dashboard to understand how we performed globally and domestically and ascertain how individual metrics contributed to our score in each SDG,” the University wrote in a statement to The Journal. “We will apply those findings to future submissions.”
In the meeting, he announced Queen’s would be participating in the THE University Impact Rankings for the first time.
According to Deane, Queen’s ranked in the envelope of 251-300 in the most recent THE ranking.
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