The University of Manchester ranked first in the UK for its social and environmental impact

“It’s really pleasing that we’ve maintained our position as the top university in the UK for social and environmental impact, despite more universities than ever entering the ranking”.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility

The University of Manchester has again ranked as the top higher education institution in the country for its social and environmental impact across its full range of functions, as well as being rated the second in Europe and eighth globally whilst competing with over 800 universities around the world.

These assessments come from this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings and are based on the local, national and international impact of the University’s education, research, operations and public engagement activity, using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as a framework.

This includes ways in which the University is addressing “SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing” which assesses the contribution of universities to tackling communicable diseases such as COVID-19 and “SDG17 Partnerships for the Goals”, which measures cross-national collaboration and coordination in research and education.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility, said: “The SDGs were developed to combat some of the most pressing challenges facing the world and its population. These rankings put us at the forefront of finding solutions to remedy these problems – be that climate change, poverty or contemporary challenges such as COVID-19”.

Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility, added: “Being recognised as a global top 10 university reflects the amazing work of our whole university community – our researchers, our teaching staff, professional and cultural institution staff, students and graduates and really enhances our global reputation as a leader on social responsibility and impact.”