Society

University of Porto highlighted in world sustainability ranking

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Filipa Brito

The University of Porto (U.Porto) is the best Portuguese institution of its kind in the first edition of the “QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2023”. Created by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the U.Porto is in the 132nd place in the world and 54th in Europe, among 700 universities – from 71 countries – classified according to their performance in two major areas: Environmental Impact and Social Impact.

A signatory institution to the Porto Climate Pact, the U.Porto is the best Portuguese University among others that are best responding to the world’s major environmental, social and governance challenges. In the Environmental Impact, it ranks in 143rd in the world, with emphasis on the 39th place obtained in the indicator related to Sustainable Research, which assesses the impact of research made by the institution in areas related to climate changes, sustainable cities, health and well-being, industry and innovation, life on land and in the sea, clean energy, among other areas within the scope of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) defined by the United Nations, under the 2030 Agenda.

The U.Porto is also the 211th best among sustainable institutions and 394th in the indicator on Sustainable Education (which values, among other criteria, academic reputation in the areas of Earth and Sea Sciences and Environmental Sciences).

In the ranking that measures the Social Impact of the Institutions the U.Porto has its best classification (118th). Within this scope, the indicators that stand out the most are the Impact of Education and Knowledge Transfer both appearing in the “world top 100” – 80th and 90th positions, respectively. It also stands out in the criteria related to Quality of Life (128th), Employment and Opportunities (219th) and Equality (224th).

In comparison with the other five Portuguese Universities present in the ranking, the U-Porto is the one with the best overall evaluation (132nd), followed by the University of Coimbra (151-160), University of Lisbon (161-170), University of Aveiro (201-220), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (301-320) and University of Minho (451-500).

Globally, the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2023 is led by the University of California, Berkeley (USA). Followed by the University of Toronto (Canada), the University of British Columbia (Canada), the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), the University of New South Wales (Australia) and the University of Sidney (Australia).