UEH and the Global Sustainable Journey: Maintaining Top 650 in the QS Sustainability 2026 Ranking

21 Nov, 2025

In the context of a significant rise in the number of educational institutions participating in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2026 – now totaling 2,001 universities (an increase of nearly 250 institutions compared with the previous year) – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) has reaffirmed its position by remaining within the Top 650 globally, specifically ranked #658 worldwide, Top 184 in Asia, and Top 4 among the 10 ranked Vietnamese universities. This achievement reflects UEH’s stable academic strength and its consistent sustainable development strategy, even as the ranking’s scale has expanded and evaluation standards have become increasingly stringent.

According to the QS Sustainability 2026 data, UEH has maintained stable scores across the three core criteria groups: Environmental Impact, Social Impact and Governance.

In the Environmental Impact group, the Environmental Research indicator is a notable strength for UEH, achieving a score of 83.3 and ranking #411 globally — demonstrating its research capacity with practical impact on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in areas such as clean energy, circular economy, sustainable urban development, climate change and marine resource conservation.
In the Social Impact group, UEH attained a score of 71.6 and ranked #324 globally, with many outstanding results in equality, welfare – public health, education impact, knowledge exchange and employment opportunities.
The Governance indicator at UEH also remains high, ranked #463 globally, reflecting a model of transparent, public-oriented governance, student-centred and consistent in sustainable development.

With these results, UEH demonstrates the comprehensive development of a multidisciplinary university — not only educating high-quality human resources, but also pioneering future-sustainable solutions. This achievement also serves as a motivation for UEH to integrate more deeply into the global academic network and to strive towards the objectives of maintaining Top 250 in Asia by 2030 and Top 100 in Asia by 2045, via nine key strategic projects:

Elevate the quality of UEH’s workforce – aiming for Top 250 in Asia.
Build an international academic ecosystem at UEH.
Strengthen research capacity, international publications, technology transfer and product commercialisation.
Train high-quality human resources, with internationalisation, practical application, multidisciplinary integration, digital transformation and sustainability.
UEH City University Hub.
Develop the start-up and innovation ecosystem to become a core connector of the Vietnamese and Asian entrepreneurial community.
Modernise technical infrastructure, facilities, effective governance and sustainable finance.
A “Happy University”.
UEH Digital Transformation 360.

“From the perspective that participation in rankings is a way for UEH to orient and refine its operational strategy towards a global university model, the QS Sustainability 2026 result is not merely a ranking, but an international recognition of UEH’s sustainable trajectory: knowledge as the foundation, learners as the centre, research and innovation as the engine, and social responsibility as the measure of value. These are the factors enabling UEH to consolidate its position in a new phase of development, contributing to the community and Vietnam’s sustainable future.” – Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Quang Hung, UEH Interim President.

UEH’s SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITY STRATEGY (2021–2030)

Implemented since 2021, UEH’s Sustainable University”model is built upon international sustainability standards, benchmarked against QS Sustainability and the THE Impact Rankings, and adjusted appropriately for the Vietnamese context.

In the first phase (2021–2025), UEH operated the model via five pillars:

Education: training global citizens with critical thinking, creativity and action for sustainability.
Research: connecting academic work and local practice, serving policy, business and community.
Operation (Campus): building a green campus, operating as a “Living Lab”.
Governance: transparent, public, embedding sustainability goals into every decision.
Community Engagement: promoting cooperation in science - technology - arts - innovation..

From 2025 onward, UEH is expanding the model and developing an ecosystem interconnected with government - business - society - academia - natural environment, creating a co-creation circle of knowledge and sustainable solutions.

The three-phase sustainable development roadmap is:

(1) Preparation (2021-2023): build the sustainability strategy, pilot the Zero Waste Campus, standardise awareness and governance foundation.

(2) Deployment (2024-2025): accelerate implementation of the five-pillar model, become the pioneering sustainable university in Vietnam.

(3) Expansion & Impact (2026–2030): empower the entire system, intensify applied research, carbon neutrality, create innovation spaces linked to urbanity.

The entire model operates according to the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle to ensure continuous improvement, strengthen reflexivity and maintain academic - operational - social standards.

See UEH’s report on the 17 SDGs in 2025 at: go.ueh.edu.vn/SDGreport2025

News, photo: Department of Communications and Partnerships, Department of Research - Development and Global Engagement.