THUNDER BAY – Lakehead University has placed 98th in the Times Higher Education’s Impact Rankings of 766 universities from 85 countries around the world. The Impact Rankings are based on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and more than 220 measurements.
Lakehead is the only primarily undergraduate university in Canada that participated in the 2020 Impact Rankings. The University joined a select group of universities from around the world in the top 100, ranking ahead of several top comprehensive and research-intensive Canadian universities.
Lakehead received an overall score of 83.6 out of 100. The University scored highly in many of the SDGs, including top 20 in SDG 2: Zero Hunger, top 30 in SDG 1: No Poverty, top 30 in SDG 14: Life Below Water, top 60 in SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, top 60 in SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, and top 70 in SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals.
Dr. Moira McPherson, Lakehead’s President and Vice-Chancellor, said she was both excited and proud that Lakehead was ranked so highly.
“Two of Lakehead University’s Strategic Plan’s five pillars are social responsibility and local and global partnerships,” Dr. McPherson explained. “To be ranked in the top 100, and top 5o on a number of goals out of 766 universities from around the world, recognizes the significant work our Lakehead community is doing to achieve our sustainability objectives. It also supports our commitment to Lakehead University’s Sustainability Action Plan.”
Dr. David Barnett, Lakehead’s Provost and Vice-President (Academic), agreed.
“This ranking reminds us of Lakehead University’s longstanding commitment to Indigenous learners and communities, and to being a leader in sustainability and social justice,” Dr. Barnett said. “Our University community has really come together to make these SDGs a priority and this is an achievement that our students, staff, faculty and alumni should be proud of.”
Times Higher Education’s Impact Rankings capture each university’s impact on society based on efforts to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and align with commitments in Lakehead’s Strategic and Academic Plans.
A set of performance metrics was developed and published at the Times Higher Education’s Innovation and Impact Summit held at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea in 2019. These metrics were refined in 2020 and expanded to include all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Impact Rankings explore the progress that a university can make specifically by examining themes of sustainability and complement the Times Higher EducationWorld University Rankings announced annually in the fall.
In 2019 Lakehead University was included in the top half of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, ranking Lakehead in the 601-800 category out of nearly 1,400 universities from 92 countries.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings judges research-intensive universities across each one of their core missions: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation), international outlook (staff, students and research); citations (research influence); industry income (knowledge transfer).
