According to the prestigious sustainability classification ‘THE Impact Rankings’, the University of the Region of Murcia is in 34th place in promoting SDG 14 for its research on underwater life
The University of Murcia (UMU) is in the 101-200 range in the world in terms of its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the prestigious sustainability classification ‘THE Impact Rankings’ 2022, prepared by annually the British institution Times Higher Education (THE). In this way, it goes up a step compared to last year, where it ranked in the 201-300 range of universities on the planet in its commitment to the SDGs.
This ranking evaluates with homogeneous methods the social impact of higher education institutions and measures their contribution to the development of the 2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs individually. In this edition, more than 1400 universities from more than 120 countries were presented, of which 41 are Spanish.
It should be noted that the UMU obtains an average of ‘remarkable’ (82.3/100) in the 17 SDGs, and obtains its best position in the promotion of SDG 14: ‘Life underwater’, ranking 34th on the planet thanks to the research work carried out from the Aquarium, which develops maintenance and reproduction protocols for threatened species, particularly in the flora and fauna of the Mar Menor. In this field, they achieved the reproduction of Mediterranean and tropical fish and invertebrates, in species such as sharks, syngnathids, corals, bivalves or crustaceans.
‘THE Impact Rankings’ also valued in SDG14 activities such as the collection of more than 500 kilos of garbage in the Segura River in the spring of 2021, an activity developed by the UMU’s ODSesiones project together with the Beniel City Council and SOS Human Legacy .
The Spanish university that most promotes ‘Underwater life’
In this ODS, the UMU obtains its best position at an international level, having climbed from 66th position last year to 34th in the world that it currently holds. Thus, in ‘Underwater life’, the public university of Murcia obtains its best position and grade, since it obtains a score of 84.4/100. So in this SDG it ranks as the number one university in Spain for its commitment to the sustainability of underwater flora and fauna.
UMU is also ranked 95th in SDG 16 ‘Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies’, and in the range of 101-200 top universities on the planet for its commitment to SDG 8 ‘Economic growth and decent work’; SDG 11 ‘Sustainable cities and communities’; and SDG 17 ‘Partnerships to achieve the goals’.
ODSesiones: educate in the 2030 Agenda
With the aim of raising awareness among the university community and Murcian society, since 2019 the Vice-rectorate for Social Responsibility and Culture of the UMU, led by Longinos Marín, launched ODSesiones, which after organizing more than 470 activities for three years will have a second edition in the period 2022-25.
Its new program of activities will begin next October 2022, through an act that will host the Faculty of Economics and Business. Once again, it will be a public-private financing project that will have the support of Aguas de Murcia, CaixaBank, Fundación Cajamurcia and the regional government. To date, 25,500 people have participated in its activities, most of them UMU students.
In this second edition, the objective will be to continue raising awareness of the importance of the 2030 Agenda, uniting public administrations, companies, third-sector entities and other educational centers through thematic activities that each month will be hosted by the faculties most linked to each SDG.
In its history, ODSesiones has accumulated three awards, granted by the ONCE Foundation, the ‘Corresponsables’ media outlet and the Union of Associated Work Cooperatives of the Region of Murcia (Ucomur) for promoting sustainable development in public administration. Another of his milestones was his participation in the COP25 Climate Summit, as well as in the last two editions of the ‘International Congress on Sustainable Development’, organized by Columbia University in New York.
‘Outstanding’ in Report Publishing
THE Impact Rankings gives the highest score -100 points- to the UMU in five sections linked to SDG 14, SDG 16 and SDG 17: ‘Support for aquatic ecosystems through education’, ‘Maintenance of a local ecosystem’, ‘Collaboration with the government, ‘Relationships to support the goals’ and ‘Publication of SDG reports’.
This year Western Sydney University (Australia) leads the ranking for the first time, followed by Arizona State University (United States) and Western University (Canada). The first European university is Newcastle, which is ranked eighth in the world, followed by Manchester, which in 2021 ranked first.
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