Western Sydney Uni’s hat-trick atop prestigious world rankings
Western Sydney University and the University of Tasmania are at the top of the Times Higher Education university impact rankings.
Western Sydney University has pulled off the remarkable feat of being first in the world in the Times Higher Education impact rankings for three consecutive years.
After the release last week of the 2025 impact rankings, Western Sydney interim vice-chancellor Clare Pollock said it was “a remarkable and defining moment for an Australian university to be recognised as No.1 in the world in such a highly competitive global rankings system for three years in a row”.
The University of Tasmania was equal second globally in the impact rankings. Other high performers were RMIT at No.5, the University of NSW at No.7, University of Technology Sydney equal 13th and Macquarie University 24th.
University of Tasmania vice-chancellor Rufus Black said the No.2 spot was a result of “a really consistent focus on leading in the sustainability agenda”.
The Times Higher Education impact rankings measure university performance against the 17 UN sustainable development goals, which include areas such as education, affordable and clean energy, gender equality, health and wellbeing, climate action, sustainable cities and communities, and responsible consumption and production.
In the impact rankings, universities are scored on their performance against four of the 17 UN goals. One of the goals, which measures how each university establishes partnerships to put sustainable development into practice, is mandatory.
The rest of each university’s score comes from three goals (in which they perform best) out of the remaining 16, which allows each institution to focus on their areas of strength.
Western Sydney’s first place came from being first in the world in gender equity, third in the world in life on land and fourth in the world in responsible consumption and production.
The university was also fourth in the world in the mandatory category of achieving partnerships to promote the sustainable development goals.
Professor Pollock said achievement of the goals was embedded across the university’s operations. “For example, here in Western Sydney our research projects are tackling issues – such as urban heat, housing sustainability and affordability, and climate resilience – that are facing our region,” she said.
UTAS’s three top scores in the UN goals were in climate action, life on land and life below water.
Professor Black said regarding climate action, it was not only conducting research but also public education programs, and was carbon-neutral in its operations. He said it also achieved well in the “life on land” area, drawing on Tasmania’s unique environment and research in sustainable agriculture.
The university’s expertise in marine science and sustainable fishing was also recognised in the impact ranking scores, he said.
Times Higher Education evaluated 2152 universities from 125 countries or regions for this year’s rankings. It said the rankings showed Australian universities took the issue of sustainability “extremely seriously” and did particularly well in fulfilling the “clean water and sanitation goal”, with four universities in the top 10.
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