Message from the Head of Department
Dear Students
Political science is a discipline that seeks to understand and analyze the relationship between political power, political behavior and political thought. Public administration is a sub-discipline of political science that focuses on public policy and state administration. As the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, we aim to teach you both the more theoretical questions and methods of political science and the more concrete structures, problems and solutions of public administration and to train you as competent and expert individuals in this field. In line with this goal, we have designed our curriculum in a multidisciplinary way to include the knowledge and skills that a political science and public administration specialist should have. We have created our curriculum and course contents with the aim of raising individuals who can critically comprehend political and administrative thought, processes and institutions, scientifically evaluate cause-effect patterns, develop new ones by taking into account current developments and put them into practice.
The language of instruction in our department is English, students who are eligible to enter the department are subjected to an English exam and are directed to the preparatory department according to their proficiency. Students who successfully complete the preparatory program start the department courses. In line with the internationalization goals of our university, there are many international students from different countries in our department.
Our curriculum consists of compulsory and elective courses designed in accordance with the Bologna Process. As a student of our department, you will take basic introductory courses in the first two years, which aim to provide you with the skills that all social sciences students should acquire. In the third and fourth years, you will be able to choose more advanced compulsory courses in the discipline of Political Science and Public Administration, as well as elective courses that you can choose according to your own interests. At the end of this process, you will graduate with basic competencies in neighboring disciplines such as law, history, sociology, statistics as well as Political Science and Public Administration.
Our department uses the flipped learning model, which is shaped by the opportunities offered by the developments in educational technologies. In this context, our course materials with enriched digital content are shared with students via UZEM, our online learning platform, and class hours are used for more interactive discussions and student-centered studies. Many of our first and second year compulsory courses and elective courses in our curriculum are taught with flipped learning. Thanks to the opportunity provided by this infrastructure, we were able to adapt to online education in the fastest and smoothest way during the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in the Spring 2020 semester, and we successfully survived this period.
Our greatest strength as a department is our academic staff. All of our curricula are taught by full-time faculty members, and courses in law, sociology, international relations and other closely related fields are taught with the support of other faculties and departments. Our faculty members have expertise and international experience in political theory, political and administrative history, Turkish political life, comparative politics, Europeanization, governance and public administration. You can view their CVs and publications on the academic staff page. The academic staff of our department is a research-oriented staff. Many national and international projects have been and continue to be carried out by our faculty members.
As a department, we try to organize and participate in many scientific and social events in order to bring our students together with important names in the field and to address current issues by our staff and students. As the head of the department, my advice to our students is to participate in such events. On the other hand, the students of our department are involved in CO-OP
They can gain experience in the business world within the scope of the program or they can count an internship in the department as a course in our department.
Finally, I would like to mention two of the most exciting features of our department for students. The first one is the right of our students to participate in Double Major and Minor programs. Students who meet the necessary requirements can enroll in a Double Major program in another department at our university and graduate with two diplomas at the end of this process, or they can complete the Minor program, which is narrower in scope, and gain expertise in a discipline they are interested in. The second is the Erasmus exchange program offered by our department. Thanks to the Erasmus Agreements signed by our department, our students can participate in student exchange programs in Germany, Spain, Italy and other European countries and continue their education at the university of their choice for up to one year.
We wish success to our prospective students during the preference period, we say "welcome" to our students who will enroll in our department and we look forward to meeting you.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Adil USTURALI
Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration