Rankings and Ratings: How to demonstrate the impact of sustainability education at your institution
2025 is right around the corner, and entry campaigns for rankings, accreditations, and ratings will soon open.
With 88% of students agreeing that their place of study should actively incorporate and promote sustainable development, measuring, benchmarking, and reporting higher education institutions’ progress in sustainability is increasingly vital. Rankings are increasingly enquiring, not only about initiatives put in place to promote sustainability, but what the outcome and impact of those are.
This begs the question: How can your university or business school standout by demonstrating progress in sustainability to rankings and rating bodies?
Data for Impact: Demonstrating sustainability education through TASK™
TASK™ - The Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge – is the first international assessment for sustainability knowledge.
It enables you to measure sustainability knowledge through a psychometric, multiple-choice question assessment.
This data-driven solution has empowered over 60 Higher Education Institutions across the globe to measure and improve their curricular impact, through entry and exit assessments providing “snapshots” of the progress in student knowledge levels.
Thanks to its robust framework and data interpretation models, TASK has recently been recognized as a trustworthy tool for demonstrating impact by several ranking and accreditation bodies.
Times Higher Education: Sustainability assessment Criteria at the 2025 Impact Rankings
Times Higher Education creates rankings to assess higher institutions’ performance on the SDGs and to provide a resource for readers to understand the different missions and successes of higher education institutions.
Their rankings cover the three main missions of university activity: research, teaching, and impact.
At the GSDC 2024 held in Bangkok, Duncan Ross, Chief Data Office at THE, announced that in the next reporting cycle for the Impact Ranking, universities will be asked questions on their sustainability literacy assessment methodology.
“The power of higher education to change the world exists both in what it is, but also more importantly in how it affects the futures of all students. Nurturing enquiring minds has always been part of that mission – but now it is more important than ever that it also encourages an aware, sustainable mindset in every student.
We are delighted that we will be incorporating questions on Sulitest’s TASK™ initiative into the largest assessment of university sustainability – THE’s Impact Rankings – in 2025.”
– Duncan Ross, Chief Data Officer at THE
How are the THE Impact rankings scored?
According to the Times Higher Education’s official website, universities can submit data on as many SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) as they are able, with each SDG having a series of metrics used to evaluate the performance of the university within its scope.
A university’s total score within a given year is then calculated by combining an obligatory evaluation of their performance in SDG 17, with its three best results on any of the remaining 16 SDGs on which it opts to report.
Falling under SDG 17, the 2025 evaluation for the Impact Ranking will include following questions*:
- Are you assessing the sustainability literacy of your students?
- If yes, are you using Sulitest TASK™, or another system?
- What proportion of your student population is assessed?
Bear in mind that SDG 17 accounts for 22 per cent of the total score*, while the other 3 SDGs - in which the university scores highest - each carry a weight of 26 per cent. The final score considered for the ranking is then calculated by averaging the university’s total scores over the last two years.
*In this first year, these new questions will not be scored.
When does the reporting cycle begin?
The THE Impact Rankings data collection takes place once a year with the information submitted being retained as a historical record of your institution’s profile, in view of future submissions.
Registrations are currently open for the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2025, with the data collection portal becoming accessible from the 16th of September to the 11th of November 2024.
This year, data will be requested from the academic year ending in 2022.
For more information, check out the full methodology document.
QS 2025 Sustainability Ranking
The QS Sustainability Rankings aim to provide students with insights on how institutions are demonstrating commitment to a more sustainable world.
“As we face the climate catastrophe, the role of higher education in solving one the greatest challenges ever facing humanity has never been greater.
Sulitest provides an important lens on how well we are educating students to respond to this emergency - equipping institutions with vital insight to ensure they can adapt their pedagogical approaches and raise literacy around sustainability. This will drive the transformation of sustainability education for years to come.”
– Leigh Kamolins, Director of Analytics & Evaluation at QS
What metrics are considered for the QS Sustainability Rankings?
This ranking has three categories:
- Environmental Impact (45%)
- Social Impact (45%), and
- Governance (10%)
For the 2025 edition, QS began asking institutions if they have any tools to assess sustainability literacy and knowledge, and if yes, if that is TASK™. Our assessment is the only pre-approved option; however, institutions who use alternative assessment tools can describe their methodology and provide evidence.
The data collected for the Governance category is also being expanded to include confirmation of an institutional Sustainability Committee. You can learn more about these updates here.
When does the reporting cycle begin?
In 2024, the sustainability data collection was open between February until mid-April, collecting data of the previous academic year.
With cycles starting in November of each year, this would mean that the cycle beginning in November 2024, will be collecting data for the 2023 academic year. This represents January to December 2023 for the Southern Hemisphere and August 2023 to July 2024 for the Northern Hemisphere.
AASHE 2025 STARS Rating
With a mission to inspire and catalyze higher education and lead the global sustainability transformation, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has been empowering higher education stakeholders since 2006, with invaluable resources, professional development, and a network for sharing knowledge.
Its flagship program, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), is a comprehensive framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.
How does the STARS Rating System work?
This tool is targeted at driving the commitment of colleges and universities worldwide to establish and reach their long-term sustainability goals. This transparent, self-reporting framework not only allows institutions to measure their achievements but also creates incentive to drive further improvement.
Scoring & Recognition
An institution’s overall score is based on the percentage of points it earns by pursuing relevant credits across Academics (AC), Engagement (EN), Operations (OP), and Planning & Administration (PA). An institution may also earn up to 10 Innovation & Leadership (IL) points for exemplary and path-breaking initiatives. These points are then added to the total number of points earned, giving organizations Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze awards.
Within the STARS rating system, under the Academic Section, there is the credit AC6: Sustainability Assessment, where an institution earns the maximum of 4 points available for this credit by administering a pre- and post-assessment to the entire student body or, at minimum, to the institution’s predominant student body (e.g., all undergraduate students), directly or by representative sample.
TASK™ is a recognized assessment to respond to this credit. If institutions engage in the TASK™ Change Leader program, they benefit from unlimited assessments which can be used for pre- and post-assessment, and commit to assess most of its student body, which enable them to successfully earn all points available for this credit.
“At AASHE, we believe that sustainability should be incorporated throughout the curriculum so that all graduating students, no matter what career path they chose, are equipped with the knowledge and solutions they need to address sustainability challenges.
TASK™, through its evaluation of students and their knowledge, will help realize this goal throughout the world.”
– Meghan Fay Zahniser, Executive Director at AASHE
Mainstreaming sustainability at your institution for lasting impact
As seen above, the importance of measuring educational outcomes and impact is increasingly valued by rankings and accreditors. To deliver this mission, it is vital to support faculty and the staff more broadly to enable curricular transformation and a lasting shift in mindsets.
Beyond the insightful data it provides, TASK™ also comes with comprehensive resources to facilitate the integration of sustainability in your curriculum.
Our mission is to equip you to become a Change Leader in sustainability education, joining the likes of ESCP Business School, the University of Sussex Business School, EM Normandie Business School, and Junia Engineering School in shaping conscientious and responsible professionals for tomorrow's world.
Want to know more about how to implement TASK™ at your institution to better demonstrate impact? Contact us today.
