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Five of Scotland’s universities appear in the recently published Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.
Now in their second year, the rankings assess the world’s universities against each of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The rankings take into account a university’s research, outreach and stewardship activities. The 2020 edition includes 766 universities from 85 different countries.
UN member states adopted the 17 goals for sustainable development in 2015 and they are described as “an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership”. The goals recognise that the ending of poverty and other types of deprivation must go hand-in-hand with strategies to improve education and health, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth.
All five Scottish universities in the 2020 rankings – Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian, Dundee, Strathclyde and Aberdeen – scored highly under the UN’s goal for strengthening global partnerships.
The Scottish Funding Council supports universities’ global research activities through its Global Research Challenge Fund which has supported over 400 projects in Scottish universities and involved more than 70 developing countries.
See the full results of the 2020 Higher Education Impact Rankings.