The challenge of assessing the impact of university social responsibility programmes came under the spotlight at the recent University Social Responsibility (USR) Summit, on ‘Education and Action for a Sustainable Future’, with speakers highlighting the need for greater emphasis on measuring universities’ contribution to the public good.
The USR Summit, a biennial flagship event of the USR Network, comprising 20 member institutions, was hosted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 16-18 November, its aim being “to nurture and guide generations of new leaders who will drive social change”.
For universities to be such drivers of social change, there needs to be a better system to assess the social responsibility work of universities.
In a plenary session titled ‘Assessing and Reinforcing USR Impacts’, the discussion focused on whether universities have the right methods and frameworks to capture, incentivise and reward universities’ social and economic impacts.
Increasing attention is being focused by university ranking organisations on social impact and sustainability, reflecting growing interest in higher education’s contribution to tackling climate change and all the global and local challenges addressed by the internationally agreed United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Panellist Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at Times Higher Education (THE), which publishes the annual THE World University Rankings and the THE Impact Rankings, flagged up the pressure for relevant changes in the university rankings landscape.
Baty argued that there was now a reckoning in store for higher education, with politicians – especially in the United States and the United Kingdom – asking what universities do for society.
The SDGs provide a new focus to examine how universities serve society and a recent THE survey indicated that 82% of students believe that universities have a role to shape the future of sustainable development.
Baty said THE is embarking on a process of turning their rankings towards measuring social and economic impacts of higher education and research on society.
He pointed to the THE Impact Rankings system, which captured global attention when it was launched in 2019. It looks at data on university research outcomes that can be clustered into each of the 17 SDGs and involves 1,524 universities from 110 countries. (Ed. – Overall, there are 26 ranked Ukrainian institutions compared with 15 last year. The Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI) improved its global ranking in SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), reaching the 201-300 band. This is the strong result demonstrating that KPI is highly competitive globally. However, KPI is still not particularly strongly represented in SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). In Ukraine specifically, KPI is second for SDG 7; fifth for SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), SDG 14 (life below water); and 11th for SDG 16.)
Recently, in October, rival global ranking organisation QS Quacquarelli Symonds released its QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2023 rankings, based on environmental and social impact.
Most recently, on 16 November, non-profit organisation Globethics.net launched its Globethics.net University Ranking, which it claims offers “a new higher education framework” to assess key stakeholders in higher education institutions worldwide on integrity, values-driven leadership and sustainability commitment” and moves away from reliance on secondary data, including the number of publications.
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