News | Wednesday, 21st April 2021
Manchester Met named in world top 100 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2021
Taking action on climate change, promoting good health and cutting inequality
Manchester Metropolitan University has been named in the world top 100 of the Times Higher Education’s Impact Rankings 2021.
The rankings shine a light on the commitment of universities to take positive action on sustainable development – including on climate change, promoting good health and wellbeing, and cutting inequality.
It is the first year Manchester Met has entered THE’s Impact Rankings, ranking 66th globally in the league tables and 15th in the UK.
The University has been recognised for its ongoing work to be sustainable and support a greener future, its impactful research, providing new opportunities for students, support for staff, and ongoing projects in countries around the world that support the global sustainability agenda.
These include:
- The University’s commitment to reducing, recycling and diverting waste from landfill, and ensuring the commitment passes through its supply chain, such as to building contactors
- Ethical sourcing of food and supplies
- Work in Colombia to provide training to 50 communities to assess and support local coastal ecosystems, that included workshops with local high schools. While projects based at a research centre in the Amazon rainforest supported student groups and indigenous communities to maintain biodiversity in ecosystems under threat from deforestation
- Peatland restoration projects and research in the EU and UK is helping to combat climate change
- The University’s work policies and practices to support inclusivity, and accreditation to the living wage foundation
- Working with global partners to support sustainability through various UN programmes
- Projects in Kenya and Rwanda to support street-connected children with communication disabilities
Professor Steve Decent, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “We are delighted to feature so highly in THE’s Impact Rankings 2021.
“Manchester Metropolitan is committed to creating a sustainable future for the planet in which everyone feels safe, secure and able to achieve their full potential both in the UK and around the world.
“Whether through creating a zero-carbon campus, reflecting social and economic priorities in our research and teaching, or supporting ecosystems around the world – we will continue to place sustainability at the heart of everything we do.”
The universities that choose to enter – 1,154 from across the world for the 2021 rankings – are judged against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are 17 targets for the world to achieve by 2030 to help people lead happy, healthy and equal lives.
Manchester Met was recognised for its excellence in several SDGs:
- Responsible Consumption and Production, that focuses on reducing waste and increasing recycling, which the University came 4th out of 503
- Life on Land, that looks at the protection of habitats, forests and biodiversity, which the University came 22nd out of 402
- Decent Work and Economic Growth, that focuses on sustainable economic growth and decent work with equal pay, which the University came 67th out of 685
The University is not standing still and is now developing its Sustainability Strategy to run up to 2030. This will build on Manchester Met’s work in creating a greener, zero-carbon campus and facilities – the University is currently ranked second in People and Planet University League for environmental performance – but also how the University will support global agendas to tackle poverty, inequality and injustice.
Manchester Met is working towards zero carbon for direct carbon and carbon equivalent emissions by 2038.
