A Comparative Analysis between Global University Rankings and Environmental Sustainability of Universities

Manuel Muñoz-Suárez, Natividad Guadalajara and José M. Osca
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Manuel Muñoz-Suárez: Faculty of Business, Technical University of Machala, Panamericana Avenue Km. 51/2 way to Pasaje, Machala 070222, Ecuador
Natividad Guadalajara: Center of Economic Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
José M. Osca: Departament of Plant Production, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-19

Abstract: Global University Rankings (GURs) intend to measure the performance of universities worldwide. Other rankings have recently appeared that evaluate the creation of environmental policies in universities, e.g., the Universitas Indonesia (UI) GreenMetric. This work aims to analyze the interaction between the Top 500 of such rankings by considering the geographical location of universities and their typologies. A descriptive analysis and a statistical logistical regression analysis were carried out. The former demonstrated that European and North American universities predominated the Top 500 of GURs, while Asian universities did so in the Top 500 of the UI GreenMetric ranking, followed by European universities. Older universities predominated the Top 500 of GURs, while younger ones did so in the Top 500 of the UI GreenMetric ranking. The second analysis demonstrated that although Latin American universities were barely present in the Top 500 of GURs, the probability of them appearing in the Top 500 of the UI GreenMetric ranking was 5-fold. We conclude that a low association exists between universities’ academic performance and their commitment to the natural environment in the heart of their institutions. It would be advisable for GURs to include environmental indicators to promote sustainability at universities and to contribute to climate change.

Keywords: geographic information systems; geographic location; Global University Ranking; green campus; higher education; regression logistic; sustainability quality; UI GreenMetric (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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