Top universities for tackling gender equality 2024

Explore the top 100 universities for gender equality based on data collected for the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings

October 28 2024

Gender equality is one of the key challenges facing society today. Across the world, it manifests in many forms, including pay, employment opportunities and access to education.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) look to tackle some of today’s biggest global issues, and SDG 5 addresses the issue of gender equality.

As part of the Impact Rankings, Times Higher Education has produced a ranking focusing on how universities are contributing to gender equality. Some of the measures looked at are research on gender, policies on gender equality, commitment to recruiting and promoting women, the proportion of first-generation female students and student access measures. You can read more about the methodology here.

Top five universities for gender equality

1. Western Sydney University

Australia’s Western Sydney University was named an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency. The institution has held this title for the past 22 years.

Western is also dedicated to combating sexual violence on campus through the development of a respectful relationships education programme to be implemented across the Australian university sector.

A Gender Equity Strategy and Action Plan has been implemented to focus on the areas where gender equality can be improved. One of the key aims of the plan is to support the university’s efforts in recruiting, retaining and helping female staff advance. Other measures that have been introduced in response to the plan are improved breastfeeding facilities on campus, additional leave for staff experiencing domestic violence, and the development of a Gender Equality Policy.

2. Institut Mines-Télécom Business School

France’s Institut Mines-Telecom Business School has signed the Charter for Gender Equality of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles. On signing this charter, the school has pledged to implement a sustainable gender equality policy.

In 2018, the school launched a Mooc titled Gender@IMT. This courses highlights the contribution of women to research, software entrepreneurship and digital careers.

The school also works with the Pascaline association to encourage more female students into engineering and digital studies.

3. The Women University Multan

The Women University Multan, the first university for women in Multan, Pakistan, seeks to highlight the importance of education and its ability to empower women. Its mission is to provide encouragement and support to help students develop into successful graduates.

Many of its graduates have gone on to further study abroad in Europe and South Korea.

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4. Universitas Airlangga

Universitas Airlangga in Indonesia has taken steps to improve outreach and encourage more admissions for female students. In 2022, 72 per cent of new applicants to the university were female.

Universitas Airlangga has established campus support units to help female students and provide a safe space for them to report incidents, seek guidance and receive support.

5. Al Ain University

Al Ain University in the UAE is committed to increasing the number of female students at the institution. Recent statistics show that in 2022, 51 per cent of graduates were female.

The university also has a support system that mentors female graduates as they enter the workforce.

Top universities for gender equality 2024: Top 100

Gender equality rank 2024	University	Country/region
1	Western Sydney University	Australia
2	Institut Mines-Télécom Business School	France
3	The Women University Multan	Pakistan
4	Universitas Airlangga	Indonesia
5	Al Ain University	United Arab Emirates
6	Griffith University	Australia
6	Towson University	United States
7	Fatima Jinnah Women University	Pakistan
8	Flinders University	Australia
9	Universidad Nacional de Rosario	Argentina
=10	Alisher Navo’i Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature	Uzbekistan
=10	La Trobe University	Australia
12	Government College Women University Faisalabad	Pakistan
=13	University of Johannesburg	South Africa
15	Manipal Academy of Higher Education	India
16	University of Gdańsk	Poland
17	University of Haifa	Israel
18	Chiang Mai University	Thailand
=19	James Cook University	Australia
=19	University of Pretoria	South Africa
21	King’s College London	United Kingdom
22	Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham	India
23	University of Newcastle	Australia
=24	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=24	University of Tasmania	Australia
26	Bahçeşehir University	Turkey
27	Universidad del Desarrollo	Chile
=28	Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul	Brazil
=28	Thammasat University	Thailand
=28	University of Canberra	Australia
31	University of Essex	United Kingdom
32	Alzahra University	Iran
=33	Central Queensland University	Australia
=33	Charles Sturt University	Australia
=33	University of Tunis El Manar	Tunisia
=36	Auckland University of Technology	New Zealand
=36	Lynn University	United States
=38	Glasgow Caledonian University	United Kingdom
=38	University of Bucharest	Romania
=40	Hacettepe University	Turkey
=40	Massey University	New Zealand
=42	Charles Darwin University	Australia
=42	Kadir Has University	Turkey
=42	Université Laval	Canada
=42	University of Indonesia	Indonesia
46	Near East University	Northern Cyprus
46	Universiti Teknologi MARA	Malaysia
=47	Gulf University for Science and Technology	Kuwait
=47	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
=47	Rovira i Virgili University	Spain
=50	Arizona State University (Tempe)	United States
=50	Mahidol University	Thailand
=50	York University	Canada
53	University of Vigo	Spain
54	University of Malaya	Malaysia
55	University of Bologna	Italy
=56	Al-Farabi Kazakh National University	Kazakhstan
=56	Free University of Berlin	Germany
=56	Universitat Internacional de Catalunya	Spain
59	Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile	Chile
=60	Ahlia University	Bahrain
=60	University of Limerick	Ireland
62	University of Wollongong	Australia
=63	American University of the Middle East	Kuwait
=63	Effat University	Saudi Arabia
=65	University of Stirling	United Kingdom
=65	University of York	United Kingdom
67	University of Central Lancashire	United Kingdom
68	Linnaeus University	Sweden
=69	Babeş-Bolyai University	Romania
=69	Bucharest University of Economic Studies	Romania
=69	Instituto Politécnico de Bragança	Portugal
=69	Monash University	Australia
=69	University of Alberta	Canada
74	SWPS University	Poland
75	University of Guelph	Canada
76	National University of Córdoba	Argentina
77	Universita IULM	Italy
78	NOVA University of Lisbon	Portugal
=79	Nitte (Deemed to be University)	India
=79	University of Helsinki	Finland
81	RMIT University	Australia
=82	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	United States
=82	University of Rijeka	Croatia
84	Western University	Canada
85	Ewha Womans University	South Korea
=86	SOAS University of London	United Kingdom
=86	University of Waikato	New Zealand
88	Middle East Technical University	Turkey
=89	Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal	Portugal
=89	Sapienza University of Rome	Italy
=89	University of Bari Aldo Moro	Italy
92	General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University	Sri Lanka
=93	Holy Spirit University of Kaslik	Lebanon
=93	Jaume I University	Spain
=93	Khon Kaen University	Thailand
96	Universidad Iberoamericana	Dominican Republic
=97	Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis	United States
=97	Old Dominion University	United States
=97	Université de Montréal	Canada
=97	University of Worcester	United Kingdom

View the full ranking for gender equality here

October 2024: After the publication of the Impact Rankings 2024, we identified errors in some universities’ evidence scores. In line with our corrections policy, the affected universities’ scores were recalculated. As per THE’s rankings correction policy, the amendments made only affect the universities in question. We do not rerun the complete ranking. All other universities maintain their original rank. This article was updated to reflect the new scores. More information on the changes can be found here.