Unicamp began work on gathering data and information regarding the University's various initiatives to promote sustainable development. The effort should guarantee the institution's unprecedented participation in the next edition of the THE Impact Rankings, a ranking that evaluates the performance of the world's universities in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (ODS) of the United Nations. The study that will be carried out to enable participation in the ranking will also enable the units and bodies that make up Unicamp to know all the projects developed with this objective, to establish partnerships to expand them and to make them better known among the community.
THE Impact Rankings is a new ranking prepared by Times Higher Education, one of the main organizations responsible for educational rankings in the world. The first edition is from 2019. In it, each university can present work and initiatives that it carries out in pursuit of one of the 17 UN SDGs, such as the eradication of poverty and hunger, promotion of health, education and gender equality, reduction of inequalities in general, among other objectives. Institutions receive individual points for each of the objectives achieved and, to enter the general classification, it is necessary to present projects to achieve SDG 17, "Partnerships and means of implementing the SDGs" and at least 3 other SDGs. In the 2020 edition, the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, came in 1st place in the overall ranking. Among the participating Brazilian institutions, the University of São Paulo (USP) had the highest position, in 14th place in the general ranking.
According to the team at the Dean of University Development (PRDU) dedicated to Unicamp's participation in rankings, this research has an innovative format that requires a different organization than usual. "There is a large set of rankings, from different institutions, which always focus on what would be the priority mission of educational institutions: research, teaching and extension, they are always strongly focused on these aspects. THE Impact has another scope , it assesses how the University, as it carries out its mission, is also concerned with sustainability. This internally and how it also participates and is connected with this issue in society", explains José Antônio Brum, PRDU advisor.
New ranking, new form of organization
The culture of sustainability can permeate different areas and everyday practices. This is why the United Nations brought together all these fronts of action in the 17 SDGs and, precisely because it requires a more integral vision of the University, this information collection work must be decentralized. "It's a very different ranking from the others because it has numerical data, but it also asks for evidence of how we do things in relation to the local, regional, national and international community for these objectives", explains Rosangela Correia Leves, member of the rankings team.
Thus, the first initiative was to bring together representatives from all Unicamp units, present the idea of the ranking to them and encourage them to think about how their bodies contribute to the 17 SDGs. Each of them must fill out forms indicating the work carried out, such as carrying out research, offering subjects with this focus in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, developing extension projects and policies and practices adopted in the local routine. All this information and numerical data collected should be brought together in the same study in the second half of this year. The ranking result should be released in April 2022.
According to Francisco Magalhães Neto, dean of University Development, the work will allow the integration of professionals and the discovery of projects that can be enhanced through partnerships. "The proposal is not for PRDU to lead this work. Our idea is to encourage these actions, integrate them and for the University to embrace these initiatives. The protagonists are the people of the University", analyzes the pro-rector.
Highlight on health and inclusion through education
Although the data collection is still in its initial phase, the PRDU rankings team already points out sectors and activities of Unicamp that contribute greatly to some of the SDGs and that can give the University prominence in the ranking. Examples include the work carried out by Unicamp's health units within the community, such as Hospital de Clínicas, Caism and Cecom, in addition to student inclusion and retention policies, such as ethnic-racial quotas and aid scholarships. Other actions that stand out are those developed by the Executive Directorate for Integrated Planning (DEPI), including the formation of the International Hub for Sustainable Development (HIDS).
They also point out that, in addition to the search for a good position in the ranking, the mobilization around the topic will be positive in order to further encourage a culture of sustainability at Unicamp, giving the actions greater visibility inside and outside the University. "Many actions carried out by units and institutes do not yet permeate the University. We realize that, as a public University, we have a very strong action in the search for integration with quotas, of bringing people from the most diverse social sectors into the university of the country and seek to make it truly comprehensive and inclusive", assesses José Antônio Brum.
"We are managing to bring together people from different bodies at Unicamp who have similar initiatives. I think this is positive, that we are discovering initiatives that we were unaware of. It is a way for the group to get to know the University better and the potential we have", points out Rosangela Light.
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