Abstract

After a decade of debate on rankings in the higher education sector, recent years have also seen the development also of sustainability rankings. Sustainable development represents one of the most significant challenges currently facing society, and education has been recognized as a crucial element in addressing this issue. In light of the societal push toward sustainability and the expected contribution of higher education institutions (HEIs), new rankings have emerged. Although numerous studies have been conducted on ranking systems, research focusing on sustainability rankings and their impact is limited. Furthermore, empirical literature regarding sustainability performance in HEIs is scarce. Given these considerations, our study aims to address these gaps by providing new empirical evidence. The objective of this paper is to empirically assess the nature of the relationship between sustainability ranking and university sustainability performance. To this end, data from 75 Italian HEIs were collected over the period between 2010 and 2023 and then a Granger Causality test was employed. In brief, our results provide evidence that a causal relationship exists in both directions. These findings can have an impact on researchers, policymakers, and university managers.