Research and reporting on university rankings serve as valuable tools for students in evaluating universities and understanding their current performance status. Within academic literature, university rankings are established using diverse criteria across various domains, each carrying varying degrees of importance. This study adopts a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) perspective to analyze the academic performance ranking of Turkish Universities in 2023. Data sourced from the 2023 reports of sixty-one universities from Times Higher Education (THE) serve as the basis for this research, with THE indicators—teaching, research, citations, industry income, and international outlook—considered as primary research criteria. The Method based on the Removal Effects of Criteria (MEREC) method is employed to ascertain criterion weights, while the Weighted Euclidean Distance-Based Approach (WEDBA) method is utilized for university ranking. The study identifies "citations" as the criterion of highest significance. Notably, the top-performing universities in the ranking include Çankaya University, Fırat University, and Bahçeşehir University. Furthermore, by comparing the rankings from this study with THE university rankings, the research offers tailored suggestions for universities. This study underscores the importance of deriving criterion weights from university performance datasets rather than relying on fixed weights, facilitating a more nuanced approach to university rankings. Moreover, it presents THE performance rankings for sixty-one Turkish universities, offering valuable insights for strategic planning within the university sector.

Todays, companies are evaluated not only based on their financial activities but also in terms of their attitudes towards environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. In this context, companies are indexed based on their sustainability levels, striving to improve both their sustainability and financial levels simultaneously. The main objective of this research is to evaluate and compare the financial performance of companies listed in the sustainability index. To determine the financial performance of companies in the sustainability index, this research develops and proposes the MEREC (Method Based on the Removal Effects of Criteria) - RBNAR (Reference-Based Normalization Alternative Ranking) hybrid method. Additionally, financial ratios are used as criteria for evaluating companies' financial performance. The weights of financial ratios are calculated using the MEREC method, while the RBNAR method determines companies' financial performances. The application of the MEREC-RBNAR hybrid method is presented through a case study aiming to identify the financial performance of companies listed in the Istanbul Stock Exchange's sustainability index for the year 2022. Furthermore, in this research, companies' financial performance levels are determined by considering the averages of financial ratios of companies listed in the sustainability index, using reference-based normalization processes. The research concludes that the most critical criterion in determining the financial performance of companies in the sustainability index is Return on Equity (ROE). MAVI Clothing Industry and Trade Inc. is identified as the company with the highest financial performance level.