WUR still gets a podium position, but with VHL and the VU as numbers one and two. Photo Romain Chollet / Unsplash Van Hall Larenstein university college succeeds WUR as the winner of the SustainaBul award. WUR still features in the top three but comes after Van Hall Larenstein and the Vrije Universiteit.
‘Students for tomorrow’ award the so-called SustainaBul since 2012. The award recognises the number one in their ranking of higher education institutes in terms of sustainability in education, research and business management. Best practices also weigh in on the ranking.
Students define sustainability to include such aspects as fighting poverty and hunger, and promoting gender equality, in addition to environmental goals. For the ranking, students perform their own search for information on the sustainability of the institutes. The institutes are subsequently asked for a reaction. Once the responses have been received, the definitive ranking is determined. Below are the scores of the 2022-edition’s top three:
Changing places
This is the second time that VHL has topped the list. In 2020 the university college based in Leeuwarden and Velp also ranked first. WUR won the award last year and has done so six times in previous years. Saxion Hogescholen won the 2022 best practices special award for a project on recycling clothing, the Circular Textile Lab.
The students presented the award on Monday during the Green Pepper festival, dedicated to education and sustainability. They noted that the role of sustainability is steadily increasing but said that they would like to see higher ambitions. Sustainability should be included in the curriculum.
Climate activism
Universities and university colleges’ increased focus on sustainability is not applauded by everyone. A plan by Radboud University to increase sustainability in education and research even led to questions being raised in parliament due to climate activism. The university occupies fifth place in this year’s SustainaBul ranking:
