Dalhousie climbed in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability this year, landing at 107 out of 1,744 participating institutions and cracking the top 100 on a range of measures.
That places Dal in the top 10 per cent of universities worldwide in the ranking, which tracks how well institutions are doing in taking action on the world's greatest environmental, social, and governance challenges.
Dal placed 12th out of 32 participating universities in Canada, up from 15th out of 31 last year.
The ranking which has grown by more than 1,000 new participating institutions since it launched 2022 evaluates universities across three broad categories, Environmental Impact, Social Impact, and Governance.
Each category contains performance "lenses" based on indicators related to specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Learn more about the QS methodology for this ranking.
Breaking down Dal's success
Dalhousie's overall score in the ranking rose to 85.8 out of 100 this year, up from 80.9 last year.
Here's how the university performed across the three categories and supporting lenses globally and in Canada:
Environmental Impact
Overall score: 82.7 out of 100, up from 73.6 last year.
Ranking outcome: Tie for 87th globally and sixth nationally.
What it measures: Environmental Impact attempts to capture the efforts universities are making through research into areas such as the environment and climate science, a strategic focus on climate mitigation, and how impactful alumni have been in creating a more sustainable world.
Highlights: Dal scored 96.5 out of 100 for the Environmental Research lens this year, earning it a tie of 72nd globally and seventh in Canada. In Environmental Education, Dal scored 90.7/100 to tie at 64th globally and eighth nationally. The university scored 59.8 in Environmental Sustainability to place at 224th globally and 10th among Canadian institutions.
Social Impact
Overall score: 86.8 out of 100, up from 85.4 last year.
Ranking outcome: Tie for 151st globally and 14th nationally.
What it measures: The category of Social Impact recognizes the efforts universities are making to transform society for the better through equality measures, sharing the knowledge providing strong outcomes to graduates, and ensuring that students have a great experience on campus.
Highlights: Dalhousie rose in two lenses in this category: Equality and Health & Wellbeing. Dal scored 96 in the former, landing it in 61st globally and a tie for 6th nationally. For the latter, Dal scored 95.4 for a placement of 119th globally and 11th nationally.
Governance
Overall score: 85 out of 100, basically flat year over year.
Ranking outcome: Tie for 296th globally and 20th nationally.
What it measures: This category recognizes universities that have good governance embedded throughout their policies, procedures and strategy. It looks at the centrality of ethics within the institution, good hiring practices, open decision-making, existence of a student unions, and other related indicators.
Highlights: Dalhousie earned a spot in the top 20 in Canada and the top 300 globally in this category, which was first introduced last year.
