The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2021 were released on April 21 by Times Higher Education (THE), a total of 1,240 universities from 98 countries and regions were involved. China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUP) ranks 1st and 4th among mainland universities in China, and 80th and 69th in the world respectively in the highly competitive rankings of "United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy: SDG7)" and "United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: SDG9)". This is the first time for CUP to participate in the SDG7 ranking, and the scores in the energy use density and industrial income are close to full marks. CUP is the only university from Mainland China that has entered the global top 100.

SDG7 measures universities' research related to energy, their energy use and policies, and their commitment to promoting energy efficiency in the wider community. In SDG7, the total score of CUP is 65.8, and the scores of energy use density and scientific research are 98.8 and 87.8, reflecting the practical consideration and action effect of CUP in the transformation and upgrading of the energy industry and serving the construction of a modern energy system towards the target of the carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions.

SDG9 measures universities' research on industry and innovation, their number of patents and spin-off companies and their research income from industry. In SDG9, CUP scored 89.9 in total, 85% higher than the median, and scored 86.9, 72.8, 87.5, and 100 respectively in research, patents, university spin-off companies, and industry revenue, continuing its fast development trend in industry-university-research cooperation.

        

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings was first released in April, 2009. Different from the traditional rankings, it measures the contributions of universities to society and human community based on the 17 UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aiming to investigate the universities' missions of social service. This is helpful for universities to run with characteristics and make efforts to achieve international standards.