AJANS UNIVERSITE
IUBHM
Translated by Hakan TOSUN, Zeynep ÇELEBI, Bilge ATASEVER
IU Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Soylet gave the first speech of plenary session with the title “The Turkish strategy of internationalization and its impact on German-Turkish university cooperation”. IU Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Soylet informed about the importance of relations between Turkish-German Universities as well as Turkish higher education life and internationalization process. IU Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Soylet continued his speech about policies to be followed by universities under the circumstances of changing world:
“Knowledge age and globalization changed a lot of things. We know what two important powers are: knowledge and quality human resource. Competetive environment is very important for all of us. We have to work much more, produce knowledge much more, propagate the knowledge much more and present this knowledge to be used by the society. You can do these with the best qualified people.The developments on informatics and communication technology made everything perfect. The culture which was created by the unities like the European Union effects our attitudes against globalization. The world has been a big village and nobody will not able to do anything by himself. Of course universities are being effected by this situation. As dear YOK President emphasized at his speech, on the one hand knowledge age, knowledge society, on the other hand globalization and competetive environment increased both the effects of universities and value and the role and responsibility of it in the eyes of society.
Societies and the other shareholders who are the people that toll the tax or direct the tax think both the fact that modern universities can give account and the fact that they should become entrepreneurs and they should stand on its own legs. If we can continue the power of university that is contentious in the future as the universities, we have to present it to put into service of science and we have to create the exchequers as independent of state.
Every field that university quits is being filled by other institutions which are not equivalent with university. So here magical word is cooperation. Cooperation makes a synergy. And so the synergy causes plentifulness, as well”.
World Has A Big Interest On Turkey
“Cooperation is not a strange thing to our culture. The mobility of students and academicians will continue to increase in the next 20 years as it does today. International cooperation in academic studies will also continue to increase in the same way.
We also should foresee the quality much more than we have done so far. Quality is also rapidly growing with the help of Bologna Process, especially in Turkey, accreditation on program basis, and national and international accreditation are also increasing.
Turkey, of course, makes you a country that is given importance to. Bologna Process that all of our universities have started to apply seriously and the philosophy Erasmus exchange programs during Bologna Process aimed at new generation, and knowing different cultures and becoming world people who care for local values have been effective in this process.
We think that are old frames of knowledge are renewed with the interaction of countries. We think that it helps create more pluralist dialogue environment. And all human welfare will increase by making human welfare nationalized.
What happened in Turkey in behalf of Internalisation?
In Turkey , while number of international students were around 16.600 in 2000, this number increased to 55.000 in 2014. This is an important raise. International scholarships supported arrival 13.000 of them to Republic of Turkey. Although count of professors are very low, it showed a %0.6 raise since 2000 to 2013.However there are still 1000 unfilled personnel cadre for international professors which our universities can use and government keeps them ready.I would like to present this fact to attention of our valuable rectors again. By Erasmus Exchange Program, 27.261 professors went or came between 2006-2013. Generally , people who went from here are three times more.
Erasmus is a big acquisition for us.In terms of reciprocal recognition and culture change,in last seven years 98.765 students went or came via this way. Mevlana program stepped in immediately and in one year 931 professors found an opportunity to go to world’s different countries to where they could not go by Erasmus.997 students went and came by Mevlana program,in one year.Number of mutual and dual degree is 196.
I would like to repeat that these kind of investigation partnerships are extremely important for both countries.Even though,Turkish-German university have some problems as other beginner corporations, I think there will be a success story. I would like to end my words with a word which I very like. In our day, way of creating welfare is not land , physical effort, manifacturing tools and factories.Modern-day economy’s raw material is information and qualified man force. We are very lucky that we represent a group which deals with these.
General session continued with Peter Greiser’s (Ministry of Federal Education and Investigation) “Strategy of German Internalisation and Current Ideas Over Common Degrees in the Context of Bologna” , Maria Kelo’s (ENQA) “Assurance of External Quality in Higher Education: Opportunities and Obstacles”, Dr. Ing. Thomas Kathöfer’s (General Secretary of German Rector Conference) “Recognition Applications in Germany and Turkey”, Gebhard Raul (DAAD) and Associate Professor M. Murat Erdogan’s (Hacettepe University) “Presentation of Survey Results Over Turkish-German University Cooperation “.
After the sessions , it is skipped into “Mutual Studying Programs” . In Mutual Studying Programs, it had been performed studyings in four topics such as Recognition Applications, Assurance of Quality, Teaching Languages and Turkish-German University Experiences. Results of presentation and studying groups’ were discussed.First Day’s program ended with the Bosphorus tour which was organised in the evening.
Turkish-German Universities Made Bilateral Talks
The presentations were presented under these titles “Principles: Turkish-German Cooperation in Research”, “Bilateral Research-Best Practice and Funding Tools”, “A Step Forward Approach to Tackle with Global Challenges. Horizon 2020”, “Turkish-German Experience on FP7.”Functional Nitrides for Energy Applications (FUNEA)” and Further Potentials by Means of Horizon 2020” on the second day of the conference.
After the break, bilateral talks were made about Turkish-German university cooperation.
The Signatures Of Turkish-German International Media Study Program Were Made
Formal opening ceremony of “International Media Studies, Turkish-German Collaborated Evening Education Masters with Thesis Program” that was implemented in this fall term by the collaboration of İstanbul University Faculty of Communication, Bonn Rhein Sieg University, Deutsche Welle Academy, took place at 14.30 in Istanbul University Congress and Culture Center.
In the formal opening ceremony of the program, IU Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Söylet, program coordinators Prof. Dr. Ceyhan Kandemir (IU Faculty Of Communication Faculty Member), Prof. Dr. Michael Krzeminski (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg UoAS), Prof. Dr. Christoph Schmidt (DW Akademisi/Bonn-Rhein-Sieg UoAS) were present and informed the audience.
In the previous week, the first lecture of the program was given by German and Turkish academicians. Students will be able to do their internships in the master degree program that started with 8 students.
“International Media Studies”, “International Media Studies, Turkish-German Collaborated Evening Education Masters with Thesis Program” is Istanbul University’s second international master degree program in a foreign language.
At the end of the second day, with the moderator-ship of IU Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Söylet, ending discussion was made under the title of “Lessons Learned”.