Universities are places of discovery: at these revered institutions, you can potentially uncover your life's purpose, or perhaps the limits of your alcohol consumption. These 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 Melbourne is playing quite a big role in the trailblazing work in this area, as one of our city's universities is among the top worldwide in prioritising a sustainable ethos.
QS World University Rankings has reviewed 1,800 unis all over the world to reveal which ones are at the forefront of social and environmental sustainability. It scored each one according to several categories, including environmental research, good governance and environmental education.
The University of Melbourne was ranked equal ninth on the list, tying for points with the University of Manchester. It's the second consecutive year that it's claimed this spot on the sustainability rankings. The University of Melbourne has consistently ranked highly among tertiary institutions across the globe, being named in the top 15 unis worldwide and the best uni in the country earlier this year.
The Melbourne institution scored an impressive total of 98.3 points overall, with 88.8 points for environmental sustainability, 98.4 points for environmental education and 92.2 for environmental research. The university had the fourth best score worldwide for social impact, which includes employability, equality, wellbeing, impact of education, and knowledge exchange.
According to the University of Melbourne, the organisation has implemented practices like an on-campus food relief program, which provides free meals to students struggling with the cost of living campus, which it attributes as one of the factors of the high sustainability ranking.
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.
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