sustainability Article Ranking the Performance of Universities: The Role of Sustainability Christoph Burmann 1 , Fernando García 2 , Francisco Guijarro 3, * and Javier Oliver 2, *   Citation: Burmann, C.; García, F.; Guijarro, F.; Oliver, J. Ranking the Performance of Universities: The Role of Sustainability. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13286. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su132313286 Academic Editor: Jesús Granados-Sanchez Received: 1 October 2021 Accepted: 27 November 2021 Published: 30 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Markstones Institute of Marketing, Branding & Technology, Universität Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany; c.burmann@uni-bremen.de 2 Department of Economics and Social Sciencies, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain; fergarga@esp.upv.es 3 Research Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain * Correspondence: fraguima@upvnet.upv.es(F.G.); jaolmun@ade.upv.es (J.O.) Abstract: University rankings assess the performance of universities in various fields and aggregate that performance into a single value. In this way, the aggregate performance of universities can be easily compared. The importance of rankings is evident, as they often guide the policy of Higher Education Institutions. The most prestigious multi-criteria rankings use indicators related to teaching and research. However, many stakeholders are now demanding a greater commitment to sustainable development from universities, and it is therefore necessary to include sustainability criteria in university rankings. The development of multi-criteria rankings is subject to numerous criticisms, including the subjectivity of the decision makers when assigning weights to the criteria. In this paper we propose a methodology based on goal programming that allows objective, transparent and reproducible weighting of the criteria. Moreover, it avoids the problems associated with the existence of correlated criteria. The methodology is applied to a sample of 718 universities, using 11 criteria obtained from two prestigious university rankings covering sustainability, teaching and research. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to assess the robustness of the results obtained. This analysis shows how the weights of the criteria and the universities’ rank change depending on the λ parameter of the goal programming model, which is the only parameter set by the decision maker. Keywords: ranking; higher education institutions; sustainability; goal programming; multicriteria decision-making 1. Introduction The process of economic globalization in recent decades has had an enormous impact on our societies and organizations. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have not been unaffected by this evolution and are now subject to increased international competition and social scrutiny. In this context, information is needed to enable stakeholders to assess and compare the performance of HEIs globally. One of the most popular instruments are university rankings, which allow for a simple and quick comparison of HEIs on the basis of selected variables [1,2]. The development of these multi-criteria rankings has experienced strong growth in recent years, which has made them an object of analysis by academia. The functions performed by university rankings are multiple and are aimed at meeting the information demands of different stakeholders. They serve to guide prospective students, assess the overall situation of universities, improve competition in the areas assessed in the rankings, project a good image of universities and improve the satisfaction of the university community [3,4]. They can also be used to aid decision makers and facilitate university policies and the allocation of financial resources [5,6]. The development of university rankings can be approached from different perspec- tives. In order to unify the procedures, the Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Sustainability 2021, 13, 13286. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313286 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability