Rankings and sustainability in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions: A descriptive analysis

The issue of ranking in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has produced a growing body of literature at an international level that is focused on metaanalysis. However, there is still comparably little discussion on the subject of Higher Education (HE) in Portugal. This paper strives to fill this gap. This research was conducted using the Portuguese public HEIs websites and presents a critical review of HEIs rankings in Portugal. These are the types of Higher Education Institution (HEI) rankings that are concerned with the promotion of sustainable development rankings. The links between rankings and institutional commitment, advanced sustainability or the promotion of a positive image are discussed. This work results in the preliminary discussion of a proposal for an alternative ranking for Sustainable Development (SD) in HEIs. An alternative ranking would take the system and subsystem activities of HEIs into consideration, and would constitute a starting point for further discussion when it comes to the development of the ranking for sustainability in HEIs in responding to the issue of holistic and integrated sustainability in Portuguese public HEIs.