Green Labels, Global Rankings or Green Systems? Universities, Their Sustainability Maturity and Diverse Pathways Toward National Green Transition

As universities assume increasingly important roles in responding to climate change and advancing sustainable development, little is known about how sustainability is integrated across rapidly expanding higher education systems in underrepresented regions such as Central Asia. This study examines sustainability development across 40 public, private and international universities in Uzbekistan using a sequential qualitative design combining comparative institutional analysis with 26 stakeholder interviews. The cases were not assigned to mutually exclusive maturity stages: all displayed mixed profiles across seven institutional dimensions, while five dominant pathways—mission-, technology-, governance-, discipline- and project-driven—captured their principal orientations. The analysis further identified four recurring organisational concerns concerning leadership, project dependency, measurement and stakeholder partnership. Building on these findings, the study proposes the five-stage Sustainability Maturity (SMat-EMIIT) Framework as a multidimensional diagnostic rather than a ranking instrument. For university administrators, it supports dimension-by-dimension diagnosis and priority setting; for policymakers, it helps target support without imposing a single institutional model. The framework offers propositions for further validation across rapidly reforming higher education systems within and beyond Central Asia.