James Wilsdon on the launch of THE’s University Impact Rankings.
Professor James Wilsdon is our former Associate Director, Grantham supervisor and member of Plastics: Redefining Single-Use.
The new ranking system from THE incorporates Sustainable Development Goals, targets the Grantham Centre uses to better position our research. But is ranking universities according to their SDG performance a good idea? James thinks not.
‘It feels churlish to respond with a weary snarl to the launch last week of THE’s University Impact Rankings. Sustainable development, wellbeing, decent work, gender equality – what’s not to like?
And of course, at one level, anything that incentivises, recognises and rewards universities for their diverse and myriad contributions to society is a good thing. As Jonathan Grant of King’s College London describes, participating in the pilot round of this exercise was, for them at least, a positive experience, which “challenged us to think even more broadly about how we considered our social impact.”’
Keep reading: Deliver us from rankers by Professor James Wilsdon
Photo by Susanne Jutzeler from Pexels.