According to the Impact Rankings, the merit comes as part of measures taken by higher education institutions to realise the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) around the world, and contributions to the world's economic and social well-being.

The University of Ghana and the University of Professional Studies, Accra were among other Ghanaian universities accepted to the 2020 rankings list. The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, however, did not make it in the rankings.

The Global Times Higher Education placed Ashesi up in the positions, despite an additional 299 universities joining the list, breaking into Africa's top 10 (from 2019's joint ranking of 14th place with the University of Ghana and the University of Professional Studies, Accra), and ranked within the top 400 universities on the list of 766 universities from 85 countries.

They noted Ashesi's strongest contributions were to the SDG 1 Goal of No Poverty, with the University being ranked 24th globally in their work to end poverty. Other areas of strength for Ashesi, were in contributions to Gender Equality (SDG 5), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).

"We believe that universities are our greatest hope of solving some of the world's biggest challenges. These rankings prove that traditional barriers to success like (institutional) wealth or research prestige don't matter when it comes to doing great things for sustainability. It's clear that universities give us a lot to be hopeful for," Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer at Times Higher Education said.

Ashesi's overall ranking was driven by contributions to:

*SDG 1 – No Poverty

*SDG 5 – Gender Equality

*SDG 6 – Clean Water & Sanitation

*SDG 7 – Affordable & Clean Energy

*SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals.