Inclusive societies

We are addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via three societal challenges of Inclusive Societies, Healthy Lives and Sustainable Environments. Several Research Centres have been established as part of the drive to promote multi-disciplinary research across Schools, challenges and themes.

One of our research strengths is in the exploration of inclusive societies and we aim to enrich cities and communities through our research themes of social innovation and public policy; social justice, equalities and communities.

These themes are explored across the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health and WiSE Centre for Economic Justice based within the Glasgow School for Society and Business as well as the Centre for Climate Justice based within the School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment.

At GCU we are proud to be ranked fourth in the world and first in the UK for promoting gender equality and in the top 5% globally for social impact in the 2022 Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings. We are also ranked the top modern university in Scotland for research power.

The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) has classified a huge 91% of the University’s health research as world leading or internationally excellent. The REF findings defined more than 80% of the University's health research as outstanding for its impact, a result surpassed by only one other University in the UK.

Our case studies offer an insight into how we are making breakthroughs on some of today's challenges to promote inclusive societies through policy changes and social innovation.