The University of the Sunshine Coast’s focus on sustainability has been recognised with a lofty position in a major global ranking.
UniSC topped Queensland and was named among the world’s top 2 per cent of universities in the 2023 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The rankings compare research, stewardship, outreach and teaching.
UniSC placed 29 overall out of 1591 institutions worldwide, and was third for clean water and sanitation.UniSC Vice-Chancellor and president Professor Helen Bartlett said it was a phenomenal outcome as UniSC improved its position across categories. “We are going from strength to strength, and to be named among the world’s top three universities for clean water and sanitation is a wonderful recognition of all the work we’ve been doing to embed sustainability across everything we do,” she said.
“Our unique campus positioning across three UNESCO biosphere reserves, our connection to our community and our innovative approaches to research and teaching mean we are well-positioned to champion and deliver holistic sustainability across our teaching, research and operations.“A large portion of the ranking is based on how we build and run our campuses, so we can be proud to see that we are practising our sustainability values every day and ensuring that our campus operations are in alignment with these global sustainability goals.“For example, we received full marks for our water reuse and land-sensitive waste disposal, which includes our swimming pool that is topped up from the lakes at our main campus, as well as our award-winning onsite composting system.
“We also received top marks in ‘educating for the SDGs (sustainability development goals)’, which assesses how we share our sustainability knowledge.
“For example, our water battery, which recently won a National Energy Efficiency Award, uses solar power to save water chilling costs, and is a valuable teaching tool.“As well as this, our Life on Land and Life Under Water courses contributed to our global top-30 positions in these categories, as did our world-class environmental research which includes coastline monitoring, forest restoration, ecology, marine and climate change research.“It also shows that the solutions that our researchers are developing here are locally and globally relevant and align with goals that have been set by the United Nations.”
UniSC psychology PhD student and humanitarian affairs green ambassador Carmine Buss, who is helping lead sustainability initiatives at the university, said she was thrilled to hear the news.“I’m from Canada, so when I’m talking to friends back home, I’m usually saying how proud I am to be at a growing university that is punching above its weight, where different researchers and areas of the university are all working together towards shared sustainability goals,” she said.“I have such pride in being a student where researchers, leaders and students are being proactive about meeting what needs to be done in terms of sustainability and climate change, contributing to solutions, and being innovative in how we do it.”
Professor Bartlett and student representatives were at UniSC Sunshine Coast Campus’ water battery on Friday to celebrate the result.Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our FREE daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email at the bottom of this article.
