Times Higher Education (THE) revealed its 2020 University Impact Rankings on April 22. A total of 857 universities from 89 countries and regions on six continents participated in at least one UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ranking, and 766 universities participated in the overall ranking.

The parameters for the rankings are the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – 17 international aims established in 2015 relating to global problems such as poverty, climate change and sustainability.

The University Impact Rankings measured 766 institutions on their commitment to support the SDGs through teaching, research and knowledge transfer. The study also sought to measure how the institutions embody the goals in internal practices, policies and procedures.

It is the first time the SDGs standard has been used in a university ranking system, rather than traditional measures such as universities' reputation and research reputation. Besides overall ranking, THE also released 17 lists of individual goals. 

As a result, the list is slightly different from last year's, with some of the more familiar names not included.

Twelve universities from the Chinese Mainland participated in the rankings this year. Nine of them qualified for the overall global ranking, with Tongji University the only one in the top 100, in 13th place.

In the overall ranking, Oceania's universities dominated, ranking among the top four in the world. The University of Auckland retained last year's record and remains at the top of the list, despite another 301 new entrants. It was followed by the University of Sydney in Australia (2), the Western Sydney University (3) and La Trobe University (4).

Included in this year's top 10 were Arizona State University – Tempe (5), the University of Bologna, Italy (6), the University of British Columbia, Canada (7), the University of Manchester, UK (8), and King's College London, UK (9) and Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (10).

Developed countries did not dominate the top 20 overall, with Tongji University in Chinese Mainland and the University of São Paulo in Brazil in 13th and 14th places respectively, both entering the rankings for the first time.

Universities in the Chinese Mainland ranked first in two separate SDGs rankings, including Nanjing Agricultural University, which ranked first in the world in "Goal 2: Zero hunger" ranking of 290 universities; second, Tongji University ranked first among 361 universities in "Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy."

Sixteen universities from nine countries and regions, including Chinese Mainland, the United States, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, took the top spot in 17 individual SDGs ranking.

The Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings, which were first published last year, is the first of its kind that evaluates which universities have a positive social and economic impact on the planet.