Impact Rankings 2021: no poverty (SDG 1) methodology

This ranking focuses on universities’ research on poverty and their support for poor students and poor members of their local community.

View the methodology for the Impact Rankings 2021 to find out how these data are used in the overall ranking. 

Metrics

Research on poverty (27%)

• Field-weighted citation index of papers related to poverty (10%)
• Number of publications related to poverty (10%)
• Proportion of all research papers co-authored with low or lower-middle income countries (7%)

This focuses on research that is relevant to poverty, measuring citation impact and the volume of research produced. The field-weighted citation index is a subject-normalised score of the citation performance of publications.

The data are provided by Elsevier’s Scopus dataset, based on a query of keywords associated with SDG 1 (no poverty) and supplemented by additional publications identified by artificial intelligence. The dataset includes all indexed publications between 2015 and 2019.

The third indicator measures the proportion of publications where one or more co-author is associated with a university that is based in a low or lower-middle income country. 

All three indicators are normalised across the range using Z-scoring.

Proportion of students receiving financial aid due to poverty (27%)

One of the key barriers to participation in higher education is the financial ability to attend university. This indicator measures the proportion of a university’s students who receive significant financial aid in order to attend the institution.

It is based on data for full-time equivalent students across both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the 2019 academic year.

The data were provided directly by universities and normalised across the range using Z-scoring.

University anti-poverty programmes (23%)

• Targets to admit students who fall in the bottom 20 per cent of household income in the country (or a more tightly defined target) (4.6%)
• Graduation/completion targets for students who fall in the bottom 20 per cent of household income in the country (or a more tightly defined target) (4.6%)
• Support for students from low income families to enable them to complete university – for example, in relation to food, housing, transportation, legal services (4.6%)
• Programmes or initiatives to assist students who fall in the bottom 20 per cent of household income in the country (or a more tightly defined target) to successfully complete their studies (4.6%)
• Schemes to support poor students from low or lower-middle income countries – for example, offering free education or grants (4.6%)

Universities have a responsibility to address the poverty of their students and potential students. The evidence for this metric was provided directly by universities, evaluated and scored by Times Higher Education and not normalised.

Community anti-poverty programmes (23%)

• Education or resources to assist the start-up of sustainable businesses in the local community – for example, mentorship programmes, training workshops, access to university facilities (5.75%)
• Financial assistance to aid the start-up of sustainable businesses in the local community (5.75%)
• Training or programmes to improve access to basic services for all (5.75%)
• Participate in policymaking at a local, regional, national and/or global level to implement programmes and policies to end poverty (5.75%)

Universities have a responsibility, as stewards of significant resources, to support the wider community in tackling poverty. The programmes can be community-led but they must be supported by the university.

The evidence for this metric was provided directly by universities, evaluated and scored by THE and not normalised.

Evidence

When we ask about policies and initiatives, our metrics require universities to provide the evidence to support their claims. Evidence is evaluated against a set of criteria and decisions are cross-validated where there is uncertainty. Evidence is not required to be exhaustive – we are looking for examples that demonstrate best practice at the institutions concerned.

Timeframe

Unless otherwise stated, the data used refer to the closest academic year to January to December 2019.

Exclusions

The ranking is open to any university that teaches at either undergraduate or postgraduate level. Although research activities form part of the methodology, there is no minimum research requirement for participation.

THE reserves the right to exclude universities that they believe have falsified data, or who are no longer in good standing.

Data collection

Institutions provide and sign off their institutional data for use in the rankings. On the rare occasions when a particular data point is not provided, we enter a value of zero.

View the full methodology for the THE Impact Rankings 2021 here.