From promoting volunteering in a big way to being at the cutting edge of employment inclusion and from embedding social change at the core of its ambitious research clusters to an ambitious decarburization plan.
These are just some of the endeavors that helped the University of Manchester top for the first time the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking that classifies higher learning educations based on their work to promote and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
I often talk about partnerships and one of the most remarkable features is showcased by the University of Manchester — the creation, through collaborations, of a Human Development Report for Greater Manchester to help measure and assess the levels of prosperity and wellbeing, and consequentially their absence within the urban spaces of the area.
This sounds like a true attempt at localising a global agenda, that is, the Human Development Report, which is annually compiled by the United Nations Development Programme. It is an exercise quite close, at least conceptually, to trying to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Another key initiative that can help us to better understand why the University of Manchester deserves to be on top of the Impact Ranking is the "stellar" way it is encouraging, promoting and celebrating volunteerism among students.
Stellar is the appropriate word to define the Stellify initiative that helps students to grow holistically by putting volunteerism at the centre of their learning experience.
They are encouraged to apply the Stellify Award for which participants have to tackle one of the Ethical Grand Challenges that focus on major themes of contemporary interests like sustainability, social justice and workplace ethics.
This is a great way to encourage students to come up with possible solutions to the greatest challenges faced by humanity.
After all, conducting a human development report of the place where a university thrives and prospers means putting research and learning at the disposal of local communities, assessing local contexts to come up with solutions to be shared and discussed with the stakeholders.
While the University of Manchester and its peers from Australia all dominate the top 10 positions of the Impact Ranking thanks to solid and far-sighted social mission governance, Malaysia is also stepping up globally.
Universiti Sains Malaysia, for the first time, broke the wall of the top 50 universities in the world for its social impact, reaching a remarkable 39th position worldwide compared with 65th the previous year. More universities are participating in the Impact Ranking with 19 having submitted their plans this year, compared with 13 last year.
This is significant because it means that they are able to outperform many of their established peers from advanced economies, showing the way how Malaysian higher learning universities are taking the SDGs seriously and, hopefully, strategically.
The challenge is to innovate more and advance a bolder agenda of social change. Let's not get intimidated by other global rankings, where the best-performing universities have incredible endowments that they can count on to expand their ambitious research agenda.
An interesting concept is the National Co-coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) in the United Kindom, which basically works as a one-stop shop to help universities promote a stronger engagement agenda that supports and facilitates the creation of meaningful partnerships to make a difference at the community level.
There is even a Manifesto for Public Engagement, which, at its core, shares the belief that "universities and research institutes have a major responsibility to contribute to society through their public engagement, and that they have much to gain in return".
Perhaps, the Higher Education Ministry in Malaysia can promote a similar concept that uniquely highlights and builds on the strengths of the higher education system.
My bet for next year's Impact Ranking is that USM will sustain its position and perhaps even go further, while the other universities that participated this year will make a quantum leap in terms of strategic thinking and vision. At least 10 new universities will be participating, bringing the number of national universities listed in the ranking to about 30.
My suggestion for the leaders of these universities: do not think too much about rankings but focus on the vision you want to achieve to localise Agenda 2030.
Perhaps answering these questions may help: do you see new win-win situations with the communities surrounding your campus? How can these citizens help you and your students? How can you help them? How do you encourage higher leadership positions on and off campus among women?
And, of course, we should not forget the defining challenge for universities in this era — how to engage and motivate more students to actively participate and take ownership of Agenda 2030.
The author is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE and writes on social inclusion, youth development, regional integration and the SDGs in the context of Asia Pacific