To participate in the Impact Rankings, a university must provide data on how it performs regarding SDG 17 “Partnerships for the Goals” and data on at least three additional SDGs. A university’s total score is calculated by combining its score in SDG 17 with its best three results on the remaining 16 SDGs. Freie Universität Berlin’s 2024 ranking thus reflects its performance across four of its nine submitted SDGs (4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, and 17).

The university performed strongly in the category SDG 5 “Gender Equality,” obtaining rank 56 globally. When ranking universities based on their commitment to gender equality, the THE Impact Ranking takes into consideration the volume of research carried out that is relevant to the study of gender equality, how accessible the university is for female students, the proportion of senior female academics, and any antidiscrimination measures that have been taken to protect women and transgender people.

President of Freie Universität Berlin, Professor Günter M. Ziegler, was delighted with the university’s position in the rankings, “We are very proud to have placed so highly in a ranking that took into consideration almost 2,000 universities from around the world. It motivates us to further pursue our activities in the field of sustainability. We have already begun creating momentum on this front by declaring 2024 to be the ‘Year of Biodiversity’ at Freie Universität. The university is conscious of its responsibility to society and is committed to creating a more sustainable future by contributing to all the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Executive Vice President of Freie Universität Berlin, Professor Verena Blechinger-Talcott, who is responsible for university culture, sustainability, and gender equity, said, “The results of these increasingly prestigious rankings show that sustainability, professionalism, gender equity, and diversity are important aspects of our university culture. I am particularly proud of our result in terms of gender equity as it recognizes the hard work that has been carried out at Freie Universität in this area, for example, the adoption of the Statute for Safeguarding and Promoting Equal Opportunities (Chancengleichheitssatzung) in 2024 as well as the creation of numerous centralized and departmental structures to promote gender equity across the university.”

Andreas Wanke, director of the Unit for Sustainability and Energy Management, sees the university’s results in the THE Impact Rankings as an incentive to develop and carry out more activities aimed at advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. “Taking part in the THE Impact Rankings is important for the university’s visibility on a regional and international level and makes it easier to exchange ideas and experiences with other universities. This is invaluable – protecting the climate and our planet’s biodiversity is more important now than ever before – and something that needs to be made possible by implementing specific measures.”

The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015. They form part of the Agenda for Sustainable Development, which outlines specific objectives to be achieved by all countries by the year 2030.