Browse the full results of the��Impact Rankings 2025

Universities in East and South-east Asia are improving rapidly when it comes to their contributions towards sustainable development, according to the latest ����Vlog Impact Rankings.

A South Korean and an Indonesian university now make the top 10 of the overall ranking, which assesses universities’ progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while 10 out of the 17 individual SDG rankings are now led by an Asian university, up from five last year.

Three South Korean and two Malaysian universities are among those at the top for particular SDGs, as well as one each in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Iraq.

In total, Asian universities occupy 22 of the top 50 spots in the overall ranking (up from 12 last year) – compared with 11 from Australasia, nine from Europe, eight from North America, and one from Africa.

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Australian institutions have typically dominated the top of the overall ranking, and that trend continues again – although Asia’s rise means the nation has one fewer institution in the top 10 compared with last year. Western Sydney University (WSU) is number one for the fourth consecutive year, while Griffith University and the University of Tasmania are tied in fourth place.

North America occupies three spots in the top 10: Arizona State University (Tempe) and Queen’s University (tied sixth), and the University of Alberta (eighth). Meanwhile, the University of Manchester is the UK’s only institution in this elite group, in second place, and Denmark’s Aalborg University is joint ninth.

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The other places are taken by the two rising stars from Asia in South Korea’s Kyungpook National University (KNU), which finishes third overall, and Indonesia’s Universitas Airlangga (joint ninth).

Impact Rankings��2025: overall top 10��

Both KNU and Airlangga moved up significantly from their positions in last year’s overall ranking, which were joint 39th��and joint 81st��respectively. While the research-focused World University Rankings tend to be relatively stable year-on-year, the Impact Rankings are inherently dynamic because the metrics allow institutions to demonstrate rapid improvement, for example by introducing new policies or by providing clearer and more open evidence of their progress.

KNU’s swift rise is most evident for SDG 1 (no poverty). The institution said it has set a goal of graduating more than 90 per cent of students who were classed as being from low-income backgrounds at the time of admission, and also has several scholarships in place to help these students continue their studies.

Meanwhile, Airlangga’s most improved score was for SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities). Based in the busy city of Surabaya, the university said it was enriching local people’s connection with nature and culture by providing free public access to its green and open spaces. It has also introduced electric bicycles for students and faculty, and free bus services.

Other Asian universities performed almost as strongly – despite that the continent was falling behind in its progress on the SDGs. South Korea’s Pusan National University (13th) was closely followed by the National Taiwan University (NTU) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (in joint 14th) and by South Korea’s Kyung Hee University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (in joint 19th).

The data show that all these universities have improved their evidence scores this year, meaning that they have made particular progress on initiatives that foster sustainability, and their documentation and promotion of these initiatives, rather than on bibliometrics or on their institutional data relating to staff and students.

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Juni Kriswanto/AFP via Getty Images

At the country level, South Korea and Malaysia are the Asian countries that have improved the most; the median year-on-year overall score differences for the two countries are 4.0 and 3.9 respectively. Japan bucks the general trend and has declined overall, as have the US and Spain.

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The improvement in East and South-east Asia’s performance comes alongside an increase in participation. While Asia has been the most-represented continent in the Impact Rankings since they launched in 2019, Asian universities now make up the majority of all ranked institutions for the first time. Fifty-two per cent of ranked universities are from the continent in 2025 – up from 49 per cent last year and 42 per cent in 2020.

Top universities by SDG

When looking at the individual SDG rankings, there is particularly strong Asian representation towards the top of the tables for SDG 1, SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).

Futao Huang, a professor at Hiroshima University’s Research Institute for ����Vlog, said these strengths are largely in line with what one might expect from the continent.

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“These reflect long-standing national and institutional priorities focused on poverty alleviation, education access and economic development – areas where many Asian universities have actively aligned their missions and strategies,” he said.

He added that the notable improvement in the table for SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) – which is now jointly led by two Malaysian universities and features three other Asian institutions in the top 10 – highlights the region’s “growing commitment to global collaboration and cross-sector engagement, supported by policy encouragement and improved data reporting capacity”.

The SDG 17 ranking examines the ways in which universities support the SDGs through collaboration with other countries, the promotion of best practices and the publication of��data.��

One institution that has significantly improved in this area is Thailand’s Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University, which is now ranked 401-600 for SDG 17, up from the 1,501+ band. The university established a network with domestic institutions and international providers in China and Japan, aimed at fostering international cooperation for sustainable development. It also implemented a grassroots economic and social development project, in collaboration with the local community and public and private sectors, focused on establishing a new creative economic district in a local market town.

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SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On SDG 8, South Korea takes the top three spots, as well as three other places in the top 10. The country’s institutions also perform well in SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production).

This is because of a combination of robust economic policies, a cultural emphasis on education and effective industry partnerships in South Korea, according to Terri Kim, professor of comparative higher education at the University of East London.

“These [industry] partnerships integrate academic research with practical applications critical for meeting the objectives of SDGs 8 and 9,” she said.

However, despite an improved performance across the continent overall, there are still some areas where Asian institutions lag behind. Kim says that South Korean universities typically struggle in SDGs that require addressing significant societal challenges, such as SDG 4 and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). Meanwhile, Asian institutions more broadly underperform on SDGs 10, 12, 13 (climate action), and 15 (life on land); just one university from the continent finishes in the top 10 in these tables (although Korea University takes the number one spot for SDG 12).

“[This limited representation] may indicate a relative lack of focus or institutional capacity in equity and environmental domains, or at least challenges in translating work into quantifiable outcomes,” said Huang.

Petra Molthan-Hill, professor of sustainable management and education for sustainable development at Nottingham Trent University, said it was no surprise Asian universities trailed on SDG 13.

“While there is a need to increase climate action in these countries, especially with regards to adaptation, the highest emitters per person are the ‘Big Four’ markets [US, UK, Canada and Australia] and hence they are the ones who could have a higher impact by reducing emissions per person and per institution,” she said.

However, SDG 13 is one of��only seven of the 17 SDGs topped by either the US, UK, Canada and Australia – down from 11 last year. And universities from these countries occupy seven of the overall top 10 this year, compared with nine in 2024.

Molthan-Hill said an optimistic reason for this dip could be that universities in these major anglophone systems now contribute to the SDGs as part of their mainstream activities, so it has become “the new normal”.

“However, a more negative answer might be that the political environment in these countries has not been so conducive to addressing the SDGs recently,” she said.

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com