Trinity has climbed to the position of 14th in the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) global impact rankings.
The rankings, which measure how well a university delivers on the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals, are designed to evaluate the degree to which universities have a positive social and economic impact on the planet.
Ranked top in the world for the second year in a row under these criteria is the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Trinity’s ranked 28th in 2019, the first year the rankings were published.
Trinity is the highest ranked Irish university this year, having previously come behind University College Cork (UCC), which this year fell from 21st to 32nd. University College Dublin (UCD) was ranked 3rd in Ireland, coming in at 34th on the global list.
Trinity’s Dean of Research Professor Linda Doyle welcomed Trinity’s rise in the rankings, stating that “these rankings celebrate the commitment of universities across the globe to making positive social and economic impacts, and we are very proud to see Trinity ranked so highly in this regard”.
Doyle added that Trinity’s position, 14th out of 766 institutions across the world “underscores our continued commitment – across all areas of the University – to sustainability and equality of opportunity and underlines the impact we are having in making the planet a better place”.
The rankings are further divided into several categories, each one representing one of the 17 UN sustainable development goals.
Trinity ranked 3rd in the world on delivering gender equality, 5th in the field of delivering sustainable cities and communities and 6th in reduced inequalities.
Trinity fell 48 places this year in the THE world university rankings to the position of 168th. College also fell in the QS university rankings by four places from 104th to 108th. This was in line with a downward trajectory that Trinity has been on in global rankings over the past decade.
In response to its recent decline Trinity have called on the government to take action and collaborate with universities in Ireland so that a national strategy can be formulated.
