The University has launched a comprehensive new report which highlights how we are addressing key issues facing humanity as set-out by the United Nations.  

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals are our world’s call to action on the most pressing challenges facing humanity and the natural world. 

At Manchester we face these challenges head on. For 200 years we’ve responded to the needs of our city, our nation and our world. We acknowledge the profound obligation on great research universities, like Manchester, to meet the challenges set out in Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As the UK’s first university to have social responsibility as a core goal, we’ve developed a strategy to tackle the SDGs in four inter-related ways: through our research, learning and students, public engagement and operations.  

In the Times Higher Education Impact rankings, based on performance across 17 SDGs, we’re the top ranked institution in the UK and in Europe and second in the world. We are the only university in the world to feature in the global top 10 each year since the rankings were established in 2019. We’re also proud to be the top performing institution in Europe for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance in the QS World University Sustainability Rankings.  

The report shows that The University of Manchester published over 22,000 pieces of research on the SDGs in the past five years, which is 4% of the UK’s entire share of publications. It details teaching and learning programmes that address the SDGs, such as our ‘Creating a Sustainable World’ interdisciplinary unit. It draws attention to the role of our four cultural institutions and other initiatives that are engaging the public with the SDGs. And it outlines ways in which our people, estate and finance operations are contributing to sustainable development. 

The report is aimed at a wide range of local, national and international audiences across the public, private, NGO, policy and education sectors. We hope it stimulates further ideas, actions and collaboration opportunities and partnerships so that, together, we can play a full role in tackling the world’s SDGs by 2030. 

• Download the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023-25