Nowadays, humanity is increasingly focusing on the principles of sustainable development, which are becoming more and more important, and universities are acting as agents to promote these principles in society. Many universities are doing important work regarding environmental issues, but also social and economic issues, thus including the three dimensions of sustainability. This article highlights important concepts related to sustainable development, compares and contrasts the definitions of education for sustainable development versus environmental education. The aim of this study is to examine the need to create a universal tool for assessing sustainability and to incorporate it into the classification system of universities. Finally, it can be said that higher education institutions need to make more strenuous efforts to improve their performance in relation to the variables of environment, infrastructure, transport and education.