HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) — University of Haifa rose significantly in this year’s Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, an index that measures academic institutions’ fulfillment of the social and environmental sustainability goals established by the United Nations.
The University is ranked in the 100-200 cluster in the 2023 report, jumping from the 201-300 group in the 2022 rankings and the 301-400 group in 2021, which now places it alongside leading global institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and New York University (NYU) in the rankings. This ranking reflects University of Haifa’s status as the first higher education institution in Israel to officially adopt the U.N.’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its university-wide vision, with the administration and staff, faculty, and students working together to promote those human, social, and environmental values.
For the past five years, Times Higher Education has published the only global performance tables that assess universities on the basis of the SDGs, using carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparison across four broad areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching. This year, with the index evaluating 1,591 universities from 112 countries and regions, University of Haifa ranked 9th globally in the category of “gender equality” (up from 55th in 2022); 28th in “peace, justice and strong institutions” (up from 95th); 28th in “life below water” (up from 98th); 30th in “quality education” (up from 48th); 47th in “decent work and economic growth” (up from 68th); and 52nd in “good health and wellbeing” (up from 84th). The University also ranked 93rd in the new category of “zero hunger” and in the 101-200 cluster for “no poverty.”
“In the 21st century, universities must be part of the fabric of local and global society. We must be influential and involved and we must play a part in finding solutions to the major challenges facing humanity,” says Prof. Gur Alroey, Rector of University of Haifa. “We at the University of Haifa choose to be a beacon of values and a strategic anchor for all of Israeli society, and not an ‘ivory tower.’ Our placement in the Impact Rankings is the result of the substantial investment that the University has made in the fields of social and environmental sustainability.”
The University’s rise in the rankings comes after it adopted its new vision last year, based on a commitment to social and environmental sustainability in keeping with the 17 U.N.-defined SDGs. Actions taken by University of Haifa towards this objective include research grants for impact studies; sustainability studies courses open to all students; establishment of the School of Environmental Studies; completion of a comprehensive report on the university’s carbon footprint and preparing a plan to reduce it; and establishment of research focus groups on key global issues, including inequality and environmental sustainability.
The University’s Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences harnesses modern and innovative technological capabilities for the purpose of this institution-wide vision, tackling climate change by working to preserve our oceans. For this purpose, the University’s unique laboratory is the Mediterranean Sea, an optimal research setting due to its semi-closed base and its status as one of the most responsive seas to climate change. At the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), University of Haifa signed a first-of-its-kind trilateral collaboration agreement with Emirati and German academic institutes to investigate the consequences of climate change and pollution in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Gulf.