In December 2024, it was announced that the University of Edinburgh placed seventh in the world for sustainability, according to the QS World University Rankings. Out of a total of 1751 universities worldwide, the University of Edinburgh placed first in Scotland and joint second in the UK, alongside Imperial College London.
With an overall score of 98.4, this ranking purports to address the university’s effort to “tackle the world’s greatest environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges”, taking into account indicators such as environmental sustainability, social impact, and environmental education. Scoring between 85.7 and 99.6 out of 100 in each of the 11 criteria considered by the report, the University of Edinburgh’s performance was impressive, but what does it really tell us?
The metrics used to gauge each university’s commitment to sustainability range from local to global in terms of impact and comprise both environmental and social concerns. The factors with the greatest weighting in each university’s overall score are their academic reputation in earth and environment, and the impact of their research towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Factors pertaining to good governance, equality and diversity, and social impact also contribute, but to a lesser degree.
As such, environmental concerns understandably take precedence, and greater consideration is given to the university’s research and academic standing than its on-campus policies towards sustainability. It is therefore a significant achievement for the university’s academic staff to have their work recognised, and the university highlighted its investments in tree-planting and peatlands restoration projects as reasons for its improvement on last year’s ranking.
However, it means that greater emphasis is put on the university’s off-campus impact, particularly in research and alumni influence, than that which is visible to the majority of students. For example, the existence of an environmentally focused student society, the presence of a student representative in governance, and the physical and mental health provisions on campus each count for only 1% of the university’s overall score, but are among the factors that affect student perception and experience the most.
The university’s score is therefore created more by its external impact than the matters which inform the student population’s own impression, which may help explain why some students were confused at the ranking.
When asked to comment on how they perceived the high score, many claimed that it did not seem to align with their own experiences on campus. The amount of disposable waste produced in university cafes, the excessive heating of the main library, and social concerns such as the university’s investment in arms companies used by Israel emerged as factors that cause students to question how sustainable the university really is. Of course, sustainability can be a catch-all term, but when it is such a high priority for prospective and current students, the full range of interests that it encompasses need to be considered.
However, much of the university’s on-campus action goes under the radar for many, and makes a significant difference. For example, during the 2023-24 academic year, almost 4 million kWh of renewable energy was generated on campus, and the Easter Bush campus provides much of its own power through its on-site solar farm. The changes that continue to mark the university’s efforts include a multi-year programme to improve energy efficiency through LED lighting, building insulation and draught-proofing, and a growing number of courses on offer centre sustainability and environment, including a new course at the Edinburgh Futures Institute which uses the university as its own case study.
The QS ranking demonstrates this push towards creating a more sustainable university, but also reveals that its achievements often exist beyond the purview of the student population. Crucially, however, rankings and awards such as these hold sway for prospective students for whom sustainability is a more important concern than ever, even when student experience has a lesser influence in the metrics used. For fourth year student Phoebe, this can distort expectations.
“It’s symptomatic of the wide gaps between student experience and how university rankings are measured. We’re not giving prospective students informed choices because the criteria they have to go on is quite different from the real student experience.”
The numbers, although impressive, represent achievements made largely at an institutional level, and do not include the wide variety of student-led initiatives and societies that have positive impact. Societies such as People and Planet Edinburgh and Amnesty Society educate students on global issues, while other like Slurp: Student Action for Homelessness and Student Action for Refugees play important roles in the local community. These give students a greater opportunity to make a difference and to become more sustainably-minded individuals, but do not bear influence on the headline-making numbers.
The responsibility to improve is one shared by us all, not just the higher-ups, and the achievements, expectations and demands of the students themselves must be considered when we advertise both the university’s successes and shortcomings in becoming a more sustainable place.
Photo by Andres Siimon on Unsplash.