Universities are places of serious enlightenment, where you can uncover your life's purpose – or perhaps the limits of your alcohol consumption. These revered educational hubs are often at the forefront of innovation, and one of the realms that they're paving the way forward in is sustainability. New data has revealed that Australia is playing quite a big role in the trailblazing work of this movement, with three of our nation’s top universities ranking among the best worldwide for their sustainable practices.
Earlier this year, the QS World University Rankings dropped its list of the world’s top universities for 2025, with six Aussie institutions landing in the top 50. Now, the prestigious higher education analytics firm has released its rankings of the universities leading the way in social and environmental sustainability. To determine the rankings, QS scored 1,800 global universities across categories such as environmental research, good governance and environmental education.
The University of Melbourne secured a spot in the top ten worldwide, tying for ninth place with the University of Manchester on the sustainability rankings. This marks the second consecutive year that the Victorian institute has claimed this position, earning an impressive 98.3 points overall. This included 88.8 points for environmental sustainability, 98.4 points for environmental education and 92.2 for environmental research. The university also earned the fourth-highest score worldwide for social impact, which includes factors like employability, equality, wellbeing, impact of education and knowledge exchange.
The University of Melbourne points to initiatives like its on-campus food relief program, which offers free meals to students facing the cost of living on campus, as one of the many factors behind its impressive sustainability ranking.
The next two spots on the sustainability leaderboard went to New South Wales institutions, with The University of Sydney in 11th place (97.7) and The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in equal 12th (97.1). The University of Sydney boasted the highest environmental education score in Australia at 98.6, while UNSW led the country in environmental research with a score of 92.4.
The top university worldwide was the University of Toronto in Canada, followed by ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Lund University in Sweden. You can see the full QS sustainability league table here.