In the National University Ranking (NUR) of Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Koya University was ranked as one of the among the five best universities of Kurdistan. Obtaining such a status has by no means been easy; it has been the result of sacrificing a lot of time and efforts, and the fruit of four successive years of continuous hard work for the sake of building an e-smart university and enhancing academic presence and visibility. 

Balen Dlawer Mirza is a researcher at the Workshop Unit in the Faculty of Engineering of Koya University. He has written a book entitled (Pesticide Residues in Kurdistan Food: Probable MRL Violations, and the Need for an Effective National Food Safety Systems to control Residus ), which will be published by the German Lambert Academic Publishing House. Concerning this, Balen says, "I have conducted my research at Greenwich University in Britain and it is the only research on food safety in Kurdistan. I have collected the data from some real portals of the European Countries.

Two Koya University researchers in the  Department of Chemical Engineering conducted a joint research with the British Teesside University. The research is entitled (The Best recovery for the Gaseous Liquids from Natural Gas with the Use of Turbux Spider), which will be published under the name of Koya University in a high- impact factor journal in the USA. One of the researchers explains the process of conducting the research, its importance and content to the Koya University Newsletter. 

After being awarded a one –year Erasmus Marhaba scholarship program, four students from Koya University are now studying at the University of Minho in Portugal. The students point out the significance of Marhaba Project and deem it an ideal opportunity to study in Europe. They also refer to the experience they have gained and say that they have successfully made use of the situation and consider it a golden opportunity to learn.

8th September, 2015 was not an ordinary day. On this day, Koya University reaped the rewards of two years work and preparation to establish close relations and a shared vision with Isfahan University of Technology, one of the most well-known Iranian universities. On that day, a senior delegation from the above-mentioned university visited Koya University.

Koya University becomes the first university at the level of Kurdistan Region and Iraq to obtain a licensed version of Promax Software, which is one of the most important software in the field of oil and gas used by the specialized engineers of this field, especially for designing and improving the processing of gas and the refining of oil.

Due to the importance of the researches done by Mr. Karzan Abdul-Kareem Omar, a Koya University scholar at the Department of Chemistry /Faculty of Science and Health of Koya University, four of his researches will be printed and published in the form of a book by the German Scholar Press in the name of Koya University. The staff of the Journal themselves had contacted the researcher for this purpose. The book is now available online. Instructors and students can buy it at a low price. Being published by one of the world scientific and academic journals, the book can be used as a scientific source.

Marhaba Project (Erasmus Mundus) sends four Koya University students from Faculty of Engineering (FENG) to University of Minho Portugal to study for one academic year in the field of manufacturing engineering. 

Koya University is representing the Kurdistan Region; Rekan Sherif, Dana Ghafar, Shivan Hakim and Shangar Mohemmed are the four students from Koya University who were able to win a one-year scholarship to study at University of Minho/Portugal via Marhaba Project.

Mr. Hiwa Salam, an instructor at the Kurdish department of Koya University participates in a research project of the British Small Media Academic Institute, which is about the oppressed ethnic minorities of the Iranian community. The research is dedicated to the eastern Kurdistan Kurds. 

How he participated in the project