The University of Gdańsk significantly improves its position and advances to the podium in the ranking assessing sustainability activities in the areas of environmental impact, social impact, and governance.

In the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025, published on December 10, 2024, our university advanced significantly in all possible criteria. Among 1,743 universities from around the world, we were ranked 302nd, which, compared to last year (ranked 488th), represents significant progress. The University of Gdańsk was classified in 3rd place among 22 Polish universities (a year ago, we were in 5th place among 20 Polish HEIs).

In the individual criteria, the University of Gdańsk achieved the following rankings:

  • Environmental Impact: 1st in Poland, 225th in the world (a year ago national ranking 4th and global ranking 256th). The best places were achieved in the categories of Environmental Education and Environmental Sustainability;
  • Social impact: 4th place in Poland, 501st in the world (ranked 577th a year ago); Equality Practices deserve a special mention here, in this aspect we are ranked 2nd nationally and 261st globally;
  • Governance: 3rd in Poland, 186th in the world (100 positions up from last year).

Link to the full ranking results:

https://www.topuniversities.com/sustainability-rankings?sort_by=rank&order_by=asc

About the ranking

Leading global ranking agency, QS World University Rankings, has reached out for the third time to the timely and relevant topic of sustainability issues, developing a ranking that measures universities’ engagement with the topic.

The ranking takes into account three categories: Social Impact, with a weighting of 45% of the final score, Environmental Impact, with the same weighting, and Governance, with a weighting of 10%. The QS Sustainability ranking thus focuses on issues of university responsibility in terms similar to the ESG approach proposed by European legislation in the sustainability of the corporate sector.

QS World University Rankings: Sustainability looks for external evidence of a university’s commitment to sustainability issues – from the impact that graduates have on science and technology to address climate issues to the impact of research conducted under the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Universities that wished to be assessed in this ranking had to produce a detailed and extensive report allowing for very fine-grained verification across 52 individual indicators.

Link to the ranking methodology:

https://support.qs.com/hc/en-gb/articles/8551503200668-QS-Sustainability-Rankings

Katarzyna Gregorowicz-Bielawska; edit. CPC UG