For the fourth year running, the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University ranks in the top 10% of universities worldwide in delivering on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. IU Indianapolis tied for fifth in the United States, rising from eighth place in 2023.
TheTimes Higher Education Impact Rankings evaluate institutions based on their ability to address key indicators identified by the United Nations that, if met, make the world a more sustainable, equitable and just place. Institutions are required to submit data on at least four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals — including SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals — then are ranked based on the sum of their scores in SDG 17 and their top three goals. As part of IU Indianapolis’ strategic goal to adapt global solutions to address local challenges, the Sustainable Development Goals are a key component of the campus’s strategy in service of the state and globe.
“As a premier public urban research institution, IU Indianapolis is committed to leading the state, nation and world in developing cutting-edge solutions to local and global challenges across disciplines,” said Latha Ramchand, inaugural chancellor and executive vice president for IU Indianapolis. “The SDGs provide a framework for these contributions, and our continued success in these rankings reflects our commitment to serve not just our students, but our city, state and region, and the global community.”
Indiana University’s submissions are a collaboration between the Office of Sustainability, the Office of International Affairs in Indianapolis and the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs. This is the sixth edition of the Impact Rankings and the Indianapolis campus’s fourth time participating. The rankings evaluated 2,152 institutions in 2024, an increase of more than 500. Despite the 32% increase in the number of institutions, both IU Indianapolis and IU Bloomington maintained their rankings in the top 10% and 25% of institutions worldwide, respectively.
IU Indianapolis ranked in the top 50 of universities worldwide and second in the U.S. for SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. IU’s leadership in health care is driven by programs like Indianapolis’ medical and dental student outreach clinics as well as the university-wide nursing outreach clinics. Such programs, alongside the United States’ largest school of medicine, serve to expand access to both rural and urban health care while providing future health care professionals the ability to diagnose and treat patients and improve public health outcomes worldwide.
“The Office of International Affairs has used the SDGs as a cornerstone of curriculum internationalization and partnership development for a number of years,” said Hilary Kahn, associate vice chancellor for international affairs at IU Indianapolis. “Relationships with institutions abroad focus extensively on how our collaborations can advance the goals of the SDGs through global research, teaching and service, and increasing numbers of IU Indianapolis units are committed to these efforts.”
IU Bloomington participated in the Impact Rankings for the second time this year, maintaining its position in the top 25% worldwide, with a ranking in the top 100 for addressing SDG 13: Climate Action. IU Indianapolis had one other top 100 finish, ranking fourth in the U.S. and 97th in the world for gender equality.
The collaborative nature of the Sustainable Development Goals is reflected in IU’s overall rankings and the emphasis put on partnerships for the goals. As Indiana University continues to unite under the banner of service to the state, nation and beyond with its newly established university-wide Office of Sustainability, these rankings are an affirmation of the sustained effort across IU.
“The SDGs provide an aspirational and compelling vision for a sustainable world,” said Jessica Davis, associate vice president and chief sustainability officer. “Units across IU contribute to this vision through their commitments to advancing education and research that align with the SDGs, as well as engaging in impactful sustainability practices from local — on our own campuses and across Indiana communities — to global.”
Read about the Times Higher Education’s ranking methodology.
