RSU ranks 12th in Times Higher Education Sustainability Rankings’ Good Health and Well-being Category

For the third year in a row, Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) has been included in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. These rankings assess how universities around the world implement the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This year, overall RSU ranks 301-400, but comes in 12th in the Good Health and Well-being SDG. This is unprecedented for a Latvian higher education institution.

The Good Health and Well-being ranking measures universities’ research in the field of medicine, their support for healthcare professions, and the health of the institutions’ students and staff. Through targeted work, RSU has managed to rise from 58th place in 2020 to 28th place last year landing on 12th place this year. RSU has made working towards this SDG one of its top priorities, taking the University’s historical development and its current strategic activities in medical education and research into account. This has been particularly the case in the context of COVID-19: researching the virus, dealing with the effects of the pandemic, and caring for the young professionals studying at the University.

The latest international ranking also commends the progress RSU has made on the Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions SDG. This goal covers a university’s research on peace and justice, participation as advisors to the government, and its pursuit of policies on academic freedom. The University's work on the Decent Work and Economic Growth SDG has also been rated highly. This SDG covers a university’s research in economics, employment practices, and the proportion of students that takes advantage of practical opportunities. This year’s ranking shows how far RSU has come in pursuing the cooperation goals - a category in which Times Higher Education looks more broadly at the ways in which universities as a whole are supporting the SDGs by working with other countries, promoting best practices and publishing data.

The THE Impact Rankings are currently the only international rankings that assess universities’ environmental, economic, and social impact and they were designed to promote sustainable development worldwide. RSU has managed to maintain its position at 301-400 in the global ranking in the group of the world's best universities, despite an annual increase in the number of universities that are ranked (1,406 this year compared to 1,118 universities last year).

Like last year, this year the THE Impact Rankings include five universities from Latvia: RSU, the University of Latvia, Riga Technical University, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, and Liepāja University. Read more about the THE Impact Rankings results on the organisation’s website:

THE Impact Rankings 2022

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.

Read more about the SDGs and how they are being implemented at RSU