Social Contribution Framework

The main function of higher education institutions, the pinnacle of the education system, has always been education, research, and knowledge transfer. However, beyond this, universities form a direct relationship with society’s creative and intellectual side through each and all of these activities, feeding on the society they belong and continuously forging society’s own historic, cultural, and social development. In full awareness of its both transforming and transformative role in its interactions with the society which nurtures it, Özyeğin University (ÖzÜ) embraces serving society through all of its activities as its key value, goal, and purpose. As an entrepreneurial research university, the mission of ÖzÜ is to serve society by ensuring the actualization of solution-oriented and high value-added practices.

With this in mind, ÖzÜ endeavors to create a livable society on a global level. To achieve this mission, ÖzÜ:

• Strives to minimize the adverse environmental, social, and economic effects of its own activities, and serves as role model for society for a sustainable life style.
• Builds the necessary management system and processes to create a university culture that places social service at the heart of its activities.
• Offers collective knowledge base created through the collaboration of multiple disciplines at the service of humanity through university-industry, university-government and university-NGO collaborations to contribute to society’s social, economic, and intellectual development.
• Develops solutions on a local scale for human, social, economic, and ecological problems in its region to contribute to the creation of collective intelligence.
• Encourages its students to become multi-dimensional and cognizant individuals who possess complex thinking skills, are able to learn through dialogue, remain sensitive to global issues, and respect values; and endeavors to prepare them as active citizens who act as pioneers in their own circles through its comprehensive education based on research and experiential learning,
• Attaches importance to transforming its graduates into society’s driving force as business creators who have the potential to change and transform society towards a positive end through both the personal and professional choices they make.
• Contributes to creating safe, accessible, and respectable living environments for all individuals.

To this end, ÖzÜ’s social service policy adopts the following goals:

• To design the activities and processes in the most efficient way in order to make social and environmental contributions,
• To enable students to proactively provide social service in any environment and condition possible through social responsibility projects with entrepreneurial and learning-by-doing-based curricula and support services,
• To promote academic contributions to respond to the socio-economic and cultural needs and issues of the region,
• To raise awareness by periodically organizing activities to provide information about social contribution practices,
• To increase the number of collaborations and partnerships with social actors such as local organizations, public institutions or organizations, and non-governmental organizations,
• To design lifelong learning activities for society and offer the necessary education required to meet the need for qualified professionals in order to contribute to the development of the region.

Özyeğin University has a pioneering institutional structure which coordinates, follows, and measures the social impact of its social services. All these efforts towards a sustainable future are consolidated under the roof of the ÖzÜ Sustainability Platform. The University takes responsibility for provision of quantitative and qualitative quality in social services by continuously developing and improving the content of its service strategy through feedback systematically collected from internal and external stakeholders as well as by regularly updating it through the necessary planning and need analysis. In contributing to society, ÖzÜ acts within the framework of legal ethical principles, and respects the rights of all living beings, environmental rights, ethnic and religious differences, and cultural and moral values.