Özyeğin University succeeded in becoming the 72th best university in the world in the general ranking of “THE Impact”, which was announced for the first time this year by the London based higher education rating institution THE (Times Higher Education) and evaluated by 550 universities from 76 countries. Özyeğin University, one of the most important values of which is 'sustainability', has taken its place as the “Turkish university with the highest social impact” in terms of the contribution made by universities to the United Nations to achieve the Sustainability Development Goals of the United Nations.

OzU's awards for sustainability are not limited to these. OzU has also been involved in GreenMetric since 2015. GreenMetric is an initiative by Universitas Indonesia in 2010 to evaluate universities around the world in terms of their environmental impact. GreenMetric evaluates universities under the headings of infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation and education, and ranks the universities.

Our university has been ranked first among Foundation Universities in Turkey in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 rankings of Green Metric, which is an international platform on sustainability and environmental awareness and determines the greenest universities in the world.

The 2021 year of GreenMetric, which is open to the participation of all higher education institutions in the world 956 universities from all over the world took part in the evaluation. Özyeğin University, with a total of 7850 points, ranked first among foundation universities in Turkey and second among 71 Turkish universities in this year's ranking (ranking 91 among 956 universities).

Özyeğin University was honored with three awards by Triple- E- 2020 (Awards on Entrepreneurship and Engagement Excellence in Higher Education), the premier awards program initiated by the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities (ACEEU) to draw attention to the social contributions of third generation entrepreneurial universities.

Among all the universities in the Asia-Pacific Region, Özyeğin University was:

•         FIRST PLACE WINNER in the “Innovation and Collaboration Space” category in recognition of its OzU-X Building

•         THIRD PLACE WINNER in the “Green University” category

•         HONORABLE MENTION WINNER in the “Community Engagement Initiative” category in recognition of its NextGEN project.

Every year, ISCN-GULF chooses the best sustainability practices at universities during the World Economic Forum. OzU was shown as one of the best practice examples successively in 2016, 2017, and 2018, marking a great achievement. Furthermore, OzU is the only university from Turkey that was listed among the best practice examples. OzU was honored with this accolade in recognition of its “Sectoral Education Program”, “Innovative Three-Layered Sustainability Education for the Business World”, and “Law Clinics” in 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively.Official reports for these awards are available at the following links:

• 2018 Sustainable Campus Best Practices from ISCN and GULF Universities - Educating with Purpose
• 2017  Sustainable Campus Best Practices from ISCN and GULF Universities - Educating for Sustainability
• 2016 Sustainable Campus Best Practices from ISCN and GULF Universities - Demonstrating Sustainable Development in Higher Education"

CEEE Awards: The 2019 Efficiency Project Awards also aim to raise efficiency awareness and promote the best practice examples in efficiency. The Center for Energy, Environment and Economy (CEEE) at Özyeğin University earned the first place in the “Public” category.  The CEEE was honored with the award in recognition of OzU SCOLA, a demonstration building in Istanbul, Turkey built as part of NEED4B: New Energy Efficient Demonstration for Buildings Project co-financed by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and undertaken by the Center for Energy, Environment and Economy (CEEE) at Özyeğin University.

IMSAD Investing in the Future Challenge: At the IMSAD Turkey Member Meetings on Thursday, February 28, 2019, the winners of the IMSAD Turkey Investing in the Future Awards were revealed to recognize the best practices in sustainability.  Overall, 27 projects were evaluated in three categories: Economics, Environment, and Social. The CEEE team from Özyeğin University was awarded the first prize in two categories.  The CEEE team was honored with the first prize in the Economics and Social categories in recognition of their BRICKER and NEXT-GEN projects, respectively.  The awards were received by Prof. Dr. M. Pınar Mengüç, CEEE Director, and Ms. Yasemin Somuncu, senior researcher, on behalf of the CEEE.

TÜBİTAK Innovative and Entrepreneurial University Index:  Since 2012, TÜBİTAK has been annually ranking universities based on their performance in entrepreneurship and innovation, and publishing the results as its Innovative and Entrepreneurial University Index. The ranking assesses and ranks the universities based on 5 (five) main indicators including scientific and technological research competence, intellectual property pool, cooperation and interaction, entrepreneurship and innovation culture, economic contribution and commercialization.

OzU has been successively ranked among the top 10 universities since 2012 and has since then maintained its top position in the index. More specifically, OzU ranked 4^th among all universities and 3^rd among foundation universities in 2012. In 2013, OzU ranked 7^th among all universities and 3^rd among foundation universities. In 2014, OzU was placed 6^th among all universities, and 5th among foundation universities. In 2015, OzU ranked 7^th among all universities, and 4^th among foundation universities. In 2016, OzU ranked 8th among all universities and 4^th among foundation universities. In 2017, OzU ranked 9^th among all universities, and 4^th among foundation universities.

ISCN Honorable Mention Award: The unique model OzU has engineered for sustainability was presented as a model from Turkey for the first time during the annual 2014 International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) Conference co-hosted by MIT and Harvard universities. OzU was selected as a global finalist, and was honored with the Honorable Mention Award in recognition of its unique model.

IBM Global University Awards: In 2011, OzU won three of the prestigious IBM Global University Awards as a result of IBM’s worldwide evaluation and assessment. OzU received two of these awards in recognition of its sustainability projects. First, Prof. Dr. Pınar Mengüç and Dr. Pınar Özuyar were honored with the “IBM Smarter Planet Innovation Award” in recognition of their project “Coherent Teachings of Energy, Environment and Economy to Build Smarter İstanbul 2050” . The project seeks answers to the questions such as “How would global warming affect one of the world’s largest metropoles such as Istanbul? What would be its economic implications? How would such a radical change in Istanbul due to global warming affect the region? Can Istanbul’s environmental problems be thought or solved separately from energy or economy?” Under the roof the CEEE, the project brings together stakeholders from public and private sector through a series of workshops to offer a holistic approach to the topic with the “Zero Istanbul 2050” initiative led by the CEEE.

Erkan Yönder from the Faculty of Business at Özyeğin University, and Avis Devine from York University, Canada were honored with the 2018 Nick Tyrrell Research Prize by INREV, IPF and SPR, the leading real estate investor associations in Europe, in recognition of their project “Decomposing the Value Effects of Sustainable Real Estate Investment: International Evidence”. The prize is awarded annually to applied research in real estate investment. Avis Devine and Erkan Yönder presented their project and received their prize during a panel discussion organized in London, on March 8, 2018. The second award, “Shared University Research Award (SUR), was presented to Associate Prof. Neşet Hikmet  in recognition of his project “Center for Business Analytics and Performance Management.” Associate Prof. Neşet Hikmet aims to develop an integrated system for a decision support and resource management in health sector.