Universities from wealthy countries continue to dominate the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings but analysis suggests the gap is narrowing slightly.
The eighth annual ranking, which assesses universities’ progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is led by the UK’s University of Manchester, ending Western Sydney University’s four-year run in first place.
Manchester rose from number two last year to claim its second top-spot title, having last led the ranking in 2021. Meanwhile, Western Sydney slipped to third position, behind Queensland’s Griffith University.
The chasing pack includes two Canadian institutions, Queen’s University and the University of Alberta, in fourth and joint 10th respectively; two Malaysian representatives, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, in fifth and joint seventh; and three further Asian contenders: South Korea’s Hanyang University in sixth, Japan’s Hokkaido University tying for seventh, and National Taiwan University (NTU) in joint 10th. France’s Institut Agro, in ninth place, is the sole representative from continental Europe.
Of these 10, only the Malaysian institutions come from countries that are defined as upper-middle income by the World Bank.
Top 11 universities in the overall Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026
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Find your university in the Sustainability Impact Ratings
However, this was an improvement on last year when it was just one. And further down the ranking, there were other notable signs of progress from universities outside the wealthiest countries.
High-income countries occupy 34 of the top 50 spots, but this was down from 39 last year. Four lower-middle-income institutions made the top 50 – double the number the year before.
Futao Huang, professor in the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University, said the data suggests a gradual rebalancing of global academic performance rather than a structural shift.
“This appears to be more a diffusion of capacity than a fundamental shift in leadership. High-income systems still dominate, but their relative advantage is narrowing as others catch up,” he said.
There are also now 38 upper-middle-income institutions in the top 200, up from 34 in 2025 – a statistic Huang cited as particularly significant.
“This reflects sustained policy investment, strategic alignment with the SDGs, and often strong state steering. Countries such as Malaysia illustrate how targeted funding, internationalisation strategies, and performance-based governance can translate into measurable SDG impact,” he said.
The average scores between universities from the wealthiest and poorest nations have also narrowed slightly. The average score for high-income countries was 72.4 – down two points on the year before.
Meanwhile, the 16 low-income countries with data for both years increased their average score from 45.5 to 49.5.
Lower-income countries tended to perform strongest in SDGs 1 (no poverty), 3 (good health and well-being) and 17 (partnerships for the goals) – but were weaker in SDGs 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 13 (climate action) and 14 (life below water).
By comparison, high-income countries did best in SDGs 9, 12 (responsible consumption and production) and 15 (life on land) – and weakest in 1 (no poverty), 5 (gender equality) and 7 (affordable and clean energy).
Tristan McCowan, professor of international education at UCL, said the impact ratings captured a snapshot of improving performance among lower-income countries. “Just having the administrative capacity to tell a good story is more than a lot of universities can spare the human resources to do,” he said.
Top ranked university for each SDG in the Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026
Manchester finished top outright in three individual tables – SDGs 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 12 and 15 – and joint first for SDG 9 and SDG 14.
The Russell Group institution improved its performance significantly in SDG 9, moving up from band 101-200 last year.
It also finished seventh in SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), giving it more top 10 places than any other institution.
In the eight years of the impact rankings, Manchester is the only university to have finished in the overall top 10 every year.
Julian Skyrme, executive director of social responsibility and civic engagement at Manchester, said that consistency demonstrates how the university prioritises creating real-world impact.
“That notion of public good is a key part of our identity, a key part of our DNA at Manchester, and we’ve had social responsibility as a core part of our university for more than a decade now,” Skyrme said.
Manchester’s victory completed a strong showing at the top of the impact ratings for the UK. The University of Huddersfield topped SDG 1 and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and moved into the top 100 overall for the first time, in joint 72nd place.
The University of Edinburgh was one of eight universities to take first position in SDG 9, while the University of Exeter achieved three top 10 finishes.
Overall, the UK claimed 16 positions in the overall top 100 and 33 in the top 200 – more than any other nation. The country’s institutions scored particularly well on average in SDGs 10, 12, 15 and 17.
Fourteen UK universities finished in record high positions, but this was under a quarter of the total entrants. This statistic demonstrates the bifurcated nature of the country’s performance this year, with a total of 16 (27 per cent) achieving their worst overall ranking ever and four in 10 moving down in the rankings.
McCowan said the UK’s performance could be explained by a combination of factors, but noted that some institutions are “in financial difficulties, and it could be that they are doubling down on some of their essential activities”.
Last year saw East and South-east Asian universities making serious progress in the Impact rankings – topping 10 out of the 17 individual SDG tables.
This time around, they topped six but achieved five of the top 10 spots in the overall ranking. Asian universities also made up the majority (28) of the top 50 for the first time – up from 22 last year and 12 in 2024.
Huang said this was a “major development” that reflects long-term investments in higher education capacity, research and global engagement across the region.
“The particularly strong performance of Malaysia, alongside improvements in the Philippines and India, highlights the diversification of excellence within Asia, not only concentrated in traditional leaders,” he said.
Asia’s representation in the top 50 compared with eight from Oceania (down from 11), seven from Europe (down from nine), six from North America (down from eight) and one from Africa (unchanged). The top Latin American institution, Mexico’s Tecnológico de Monterrey, is placed in band 101-200.
Malaysia achieved four spots in the overall top 50 – including the University of Malaya in 24th and Sunway University, which rose from 81st to 45th.
The Philippines and India, the two countries that supply around a sixth of all ranked universities, both saw signs of progress.
And Lovely Professional University in the Punjab climbed to 23rd overall from joint 48th last year, becoming the highest ranked institution from a lower-middle-income nation.
Some of the biggest movers in this year’s ranking were from Asia – with Hanyang and Hokkaido universities both climbing from joint 44th position overall last year into the top 10, and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia jumping up from joint 53rd.
Going in the other direction were Kyungpook National University (KNU), which fell from third to joint 20th, and the University of Tasmania, which dropped from joint fourth to joint 16th. Arizona State University (Tempe), which came joint sixth last year, fell even further, to joint 33rd in 2026.
This year, the impact ratings also saw a noted uptick in performance from Central Asia.
Azerbaijan was one of the only countries with 10 or more institutions represented to have all of them go up in their placing in the overall table – with Baku State University breaking into the top 200.
Likewise, more than nine in 10 Uzbek and Kazakh universities improved their position. Joint top performers in Uzbekistan were Tashkent State University of Economics and Alisher Navo’i Tashkent State University, while Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Satbayev University tied for top billing in Kazakhstan.
