Vietnamese school rises in the ranking of the world's most sustainable universities

Vietnam has 10 representatives in the ranking of the world's most sustainable universities, in which Hanoi National University surpassed Duy Tan University to hold the leading position.

Danang University, a new school in the ranking of the world's most sustainable universities

PHOTO: THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

Two new representatives in the sustainable development university rankings

The QS organization in the UK announced the ranking of the world's most sustainable universities in 2025 on December 10. Vietnam has 10 ranked universities, including two new representatives, Hue University and Da Nang University, both in the 1,501+ group. With the old faces, three universities have improved their rankings: Hanoi National University (from 781-790 to 325th), Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (from 841-860 to 653) and Hanoi University of Science and Technology (from 901-920 to 702).

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City National University, Duy Tan University, Ton Duc Thang University, Can Tho University, and Nguyen Tat Thanh University all dropped in rank. Overall, Vietnam this year has 6 representatives in the top 1,000 most sustainable universities in the world, most of them are public schools and 5/6 of them are universities, only Ton Duc Thang is a university. Notably, 2/10 schools are regional universities (Hue, Da Nang), reflecting a more diverse university education picture.

Of the 10 Vietnamese universities ranked, only five were scored based on QS criteria, ranging from 47.1 (Ho Chi Minh City National University) to 70.5 (Hanoi National University) on a 100-point scale.

Specifically, in the environmental impact criteria group, Vietnamese universities achieved the best scores in environmental research criteria (ranging from 55.4 to 87.4), while in the environmental education and sustainable environmental development criteria, no university exceeded 70 points (ranging from 18.5 to 66.4 and 13.6 to 65.4, respectively). In the governance criteria group, universities were rated from 28.7 to 88.1 points.

In the last group of criteria, social impact, schools achieved equal results in the knowledge sharing criterion, ranging from 71.5 to 88.1 points. Other criteria, including equality, recruitment and opportunity, health and well-being, were rated by QS from 44.2 to 81, 40.1 to 74.4, 47.6 to 80.5 points, respectively. In the educational impact criterion, schools had quite low scores, ranging from 17.6 to 57.3 points.

According to QS, Danang University, Hue University, Duy Tan University, Nguyen Tat Thanh University and Ton Duc Thang University have 1% international students. For the other schools, 100% of students are local. All currently have no information on tuition fees for international students, nor are there any scholarships for foreigners, QS said.

A training facility of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, a school present in many global university rankings.

What is the ranking method?

According to QS, the world's most sustainable university rankings evaluate schools based on three major criteria with nine sub-criteria. For each sub-criteria, QS also divides it into many assessment aspects, with a total of 53 aspects. The weight of these aspects is mostly 1%, but there are two aspects that reach 9% (research impact on sustainable development goals) and 10% (academic reputation in the field of earth and environmental sciences).

"The World's Most Sustainable Universities Rankings look at real-world evidence, from alumni contributions to science and technology to tackling climate issues, to the impact of a university's scientific research on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also gives students a unique insight into which universities are truly committed to a more sustainable future," QS wrote in a statement.

In 2025, QS ranked 1,743 higher education institutions from 107 countries and territories around the world. Topping the list of the world's most sustainable universities this year is the University of Toronto (Canada), and this is the only unit to achieve an absolute score of 100. It is followed by ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2nd place, Lund University (Sweden) and the University of California at Berkeley (USA) in 3rd place, and UCL (UK) in 5th place.

QS is one of the most prestigious, experienced and influential university ranking organizations in the world, along with THE (UK) and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (China). QS has been ranking universities since 2004 with THE, one year after the world first had a global university ranking published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (later Shanghai Ranking Consultancy).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/truong-viet-thang-hang-tren-bang-xep-hang-dh-phat-trien-ben-vung-nhat-the-gioi-185241211102209797.htm