Rector's Speech
Hello, my name is Professor Dr. Bulent Cakmak and I am the Rector of Erzurum Technical University. I would like to start by welcoming students to our university! Erzurum Technical University, which opened in 2010, is the second state university established in Erzurum. It was set up with 6 faculties, 3 institutes and 1 college. Our faculties are as follows: the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, the Faculty of Sport Sciences, the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Letters. The Institute of Natural Sciences, the Institute of Social Sciences and the Institute of Health Sciences constitute our Institutes. We also have a School of Foreign Languages at the university. We have a total of 4500 students. In the Faculties of Engineering and Architecture we have the departments of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Computer Engineering. The Faculty of Science has a Molecular Biology and Genetics Department, a Mathematics Department and a Basic Sciences Department. The Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences houses the departments of Economics and Business Administration. Philosophy, History, Turkish Language and the Literature and Psychology Departments are in the Faculty of Letters. We have the Physical Education and the Sports Teaching Department in the Faculty of Sport Sciences. The fact that Erzurum Technical University was newly founded in 2010, has many advantages—particularly for our students. Since we are a new and dynamic institution, we await students to our university. We have a young and dynamic staff. Our staff being highly qualified provides great advantages in terms of our students' education, because being a new university also means our students are able to contact the academic staff whenever they want. Additionally, as part of our mission as a technical university, we have created a strong infrastructure here. This is not only in our Science, Engineering and Architecture Faculties; this is also the case in our social science related faculties. Our computer laboratories and libraries are designed and equipped digitally and presently serve our students in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, the Faculty of Sport Sciences and in the Faculty of Letters. Of course, our laboratory facilities are also well-equipped in our Science, Engineering and Architecture Faculties. For our students, we have created environments where theoretical lessons can be also taught practically. Our students have broad use of these laboratory facilities. This does not only give students the opportunity to put theory into practice; at the same time, this makes an important contribution to their learning since they can put their projects into practice directly. When I talk about the possibilities of our university, I think it is particularly important to emphasise the sporting opportunities. Because, concerning winter sports, I would like to share with students how the province of Erzurum has come to the fore and that important opportunities have been realized in recent years. As a university we organize many winter sport programs and courses to this end. There are many programs—which are offered free to students—such as curling, ice hockey, and skiing. Likewise, we have teams participating in national competitions for these winter sports and our students have taken first and second place in related national competitions. Our student curling team won second place this year. Our students also returned to the university with successes in skiing, ice hockey and in other winter sports. A University should not only be defined by its education; at the same time, many sport and social activities need to be prioritized. By providing such social and sport facilities we are able to furnish our students with environments where they can capitalize on their out-of-school time.
At present education and training takes place in our 5 faculties and 13 departments. Next year, we will activate the Faculty of Health Sciences. In the Faculty of Health Sciences we have departments of Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Nutrition and Dietetics and this year, we will be accepting students to these departments. Thus, we will actively continue our education over 6 faculties. One of the most important points students should bear in mind while choosing their university is the quality of Erzurum Technical University academic staff. Of course, the quality of education is directly related to the quality of academic staff. For this reason, we wish to establish qualified academic personnel particularly while selecting our academic staff. To this purpose, we have set many criteria when assigning academic staff. By assigning academic staff to our departments that meet such criteria our aim of providing the best education to our students is thereby met. In this sense, we establish a qualified staff by employing academics who have completed their doctorates abroad or from prestigious universities in Turkey. Of course, improving the quality of education is not only achieved through our academic staff. Specifically on this point, we are making efforts to create a new educational paradigm. Because, as you know, universities are currently addressing generation Z and generation Y. We all realise that it is not possible to increase the quality of education by applying the educational models of 30-40 years ago. For this reason, for the benefit of our students—to provide quality education for them—we are adapting new, digital teaching technologies to our courses. We have begun endeavours to achieve this. By using what are known as ‘Learning Management Systems’, our students can benefit from digital technologies, enabling them to follow their lessons via social media and the internet; establishing active learning in the courses and thereby applying the most effective educational method. We are striving to increase the quality of education by ensuring that our students participate actively in the class without being passive during their courses. We have already started working on this.
Of course, one of the important functions of universities is their contribution to the city and to society. In other words, education, or research and development are not the only pillars of a university; making a contribution to the city and to the region—alongside the contributions it provides in other areas—is also a crucial pillar for the existence of a university. In this sense, we are in constant contact with the city. We have a program called ‘Mucit Park’ (‘Inventor Park’) at the university. In this program, our students can benefit from various 21st century skills and workshops, starting from the first grade to the last year of high school. For example, we have many workshops such as Three-Dimensional Modelling, Virtual Reality Enhancement, Robotic Coding, Social Innovation, and Basic Physics-Chemistry-Biology Application Laboratories. Students from first grade to high school can benefit from these workshops and are not only confined to the information they have learned in their classes—on top of this they gain these extra qualities. We can say that this is one of the important contributions that we make to society. In addition to this, we want to implement a model where the technological products of the research and development carried out at the university are realised with local industry. We have the Advanced Technology Center here in the university where our graduate students work. Many projects are researched, developed and produced there. We have faculty members and academics who have firms at Teknokent. In this way, we continue our efforts for a number of projects researched and developed at the university to be realized in the city. Of course, it is one of the advantages of our university that our students continue their campus life on a single campus. In other words, all of our faculties, and educational buildings are housed in one campus. Therefore, transportation from one place to another is not a problem for our students. We have sports fields for our students to benefit from within the campus area. There are basketball courts, football fields, tennis courts and indoor sports halls. Students can benefit from these facilities in their spare time. In addition, we have a cinema within the Health, Culture and Sports Department. We provide our students with the chance to utilise their free time by organizing film programs on certain days of the week.
There are international students at our university. We have students from many countries coming here. Incoming students take Turkish courses either at our university or at other universities. In other words, they do not have any problems communicating with our current students. When our foreign students or international students come to our university, we, as the management, initiate an adaptation process for students of the university through contact with them. Therefore, there is no problem for incoming international or foreign students in terms of adaptation to the university. Since we are a technical university, it is necessary to use the technological infrastructure and the facilities in the best possible way. This is because all of our students come here with extensive experience of technological devices. Therefore, we provide digital facilities to our students in classrooms, laboratories and libraries to a very modern standard. This is because, in this way, by using the technological facilities and the physical use of digital technologies in these facilities is much more advantageous for our students and we observe that their learning is strengthened significantly. Our university is 1.5 kilometers away from the city center and roughly 1.5 kilometers from the airport and the bus terminal. Therefore, we can easily say that our university is not far from the city. We have a bus service every 10 minutes in order to ensure that our students can easily travel between the city and the university. In addition to this, we can say that our buses provide very convenient transportation both within the university campus and to the nearby university dormitories. The sports facilities at this university are extensive. We have many indoor and outdoor sports grounds. We have tennis courts, basketball courts, football fields and synthetic grass pitches. We also have indoor sports halls. All of which our students can benefit from for free. There are many sports teams that our students have set up at our university due to the wide range of sports facilities. These teams participate in national competitions both for winter and for summer sports. In addition, there are many technological and social innovation clubs that our students can participate in. Students that participate in these technological clubs also take part in many national technological competitions and represent our university in them. For example, as of this year, our students from the Civil Engineering Department won the first prize in the Earthquake Resistant Building Design Competition organized by the Natural Catastrophe Insurance Agency in Istanbul. Students from our Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department won a sponsorship award from the Scientific and Technological Research Council for their graduation project. Such achievements constitute important references for our students both in their educational and their professional life.
Our university campus provides a wide range of accommodation for those students coming from outside the city. There is the Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution dormitory which houses 1500 female students. Our university also has a private dormitory for 150 female students. This is of adequate capacity to meet the requirements of our university students. There is also a Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution dormitory located close to the campus for our male students. Thanks to these dormitories, it is possible to say that Erzurum provides an important opportunity for our students not to have housing problems. The university has been actively working—within the scope of the Barrier-Free University, Barrier-Free Buildings project—for disabled students. People with disabilities or disabled students can easily access the educational buildings by using the elevator services or the ramps placed outside the buildings. Since the foundation of our university we have designed our buildings with accessibility in mind. For example, the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture building— which covers an area of some 20 thousand square meters—is one of the first buildings of this size to receive a ‘green building’ certification. I can easily that this is one of the important education buildings to receive this certificate in terms of its accessibility and energy-saving.
One of the important missions of a university is internationalization. This is because staying at the local level is one of the most important factors threatening universities. In order not to remain localized, we have common agreements with many universities around the world facilitating internationalization. In addition, we have programs that enable our students to go abroad and receive education within the scope of Erasmus and similar bilateral exchange programs. One of our important goals is to create a synergy and to create a trend in terms of internationalization through having both students and staff from our university and from other universities engage in this internationalization. Within the scope of the Erasmus Program, not only our students go abroad, we also accept students from other countries. We are also working for the recognition of the degree our university awards abroad. We will be completing this work by the time our departments are at the stage to produce our first graduates and these students will be given a supplementary, internationally recognised, diploma. Erzurum Technical University is a new and dynamic university—as I mentioned earlier—and students can benefit from the many advantages offered by a new university. We can give the new university classrooms, the laboratories, the spaciously constructed libraries, the well-constructed technical infrastructure, the technological facilities in use at our university and the ease with which students can adapt to digital technologies as a few of the excellent reasons for students to choose us. We offer our students the maximum opportunity to continue their education and training in a peaceful university environment.
Our advice to families is that they make a choice in a conscious manner. While making your university preference examine their websites and their departments carefully. Evaluate meticulously, their staff, the infrastructure, the laboratories, the facilities, and the social and sport opportunities available. When making your preference, we can say that the choice of department is more important than the city, especially in terms of the quality of the departments—these are the important issues parents and students have to consider when making their choice. We request this from our parents and students. In this manner, the education they receive will of a higher quality for them, and they will have important opportunities in terms of finding a job when they graduate. Dear friends, Erzurum Technical University is a university where you will have many advantages and you will study in peace and security. We strongly recommend that you visit our website while making your preference. The facilities in our departments, the infrastructure, the academic staff, the sport and social facilities are all clear to see. You can always contact us. When you phone us or come to visit we will explain this to you in great detail and I can easily that when you choose this university you will not regret your choice.
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At present education and training takes place in our 5 faculties and 13 departments. Next year, we will activate the Faculty of Health Sciences. In the Faculty of Health Sciences we have departments of Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Nutrition and Dietetics and this year, we will be accepting students to these departments. Thus, we will actively continue our education over 6 faculties. One of the most important points students should bear in mind while choosing their university is the quality of Erzurum Technical University academic staff. Of course, the quality of education is directly related to the quality of academic staff. For this reason, we wish to establish qualified academic personnel particularly while selecting our academic staff. To this purpose, we have set many criteria when assigning academic staff. By assigning academic staff to our departments that meet such criteria our aim of providing the best education to our students is thereby met. In this sense, we establish a qualified staff by employing academics who have completed their doctorates abroad or from prestigious universities in Turkey. Of course, improving the quality of education is not only achieved through our academic staff. Specifically on this point, we are making efforts to create a new educational paradigm. Because, as you know, universities are currently addressing generation Z and generation Y. We all realise that it is not possible to increase the quality of education by applying the educational models of 30-40 years ago. For this reason, for the benefit of our students—to provide quality education for them—we are adapting new, digital teaching technologies to our courses. We have begun endeavours to achieve this. By using what are known as ‘Learning Management Systems’, our students can benefit from digital technologies, enabling them to follow their lessons via social media and the internet; establishing active learning in the courses and thereby applying the most effective educational method. We are striving to increase the quality of education by ensuring that our students participate actively in the class without being passive during their courses. We have already started working on this.
Of course, one of the important functions of universities is their contribution to the city and to society. In other words, education, or research and development are not the only pillars of a university; making a contribution to the city and to the region—alongside the contributions it provides in other areas—is also a crucial pillar for the existence of a university. In this sense, we are in constant contact with the city. We have a program called ‘Mucit Park’ (‘Inventor Park’) at the university. In this program, our students can benefit from various 21st century skills and workshops, starting from the first grade to the last year of high school. For example, we have many workshops such as Three-Dimensional Modelling, Virtual Reality Enhancement, Robotic Coding, Social Innovation, and Basic Physics-Chemistry-Biology Application Laboratories. Students from first grade to high school can benefit from these workshops and are not only confined to the information they have learned in their classes—on top of this they gain these extra qualities. We can say that this is one of the important contributions that we make to society. In addition to this, we want to implement a model where the technological products of the research and development carried out at the university are realised with local industry. We have the Advanced Technology Center here in the university where our graduate students work. Many projects are researched, developed and produced there. We have faculty members and academics who have firms at Teknokent. In this way, we continue our efforts for a number of projects researched and developed at the university to be realized in the city. Of course, it is one of the advantages of our university that our students continue their campus life on a single campus. In other words, all of our faculties, and educational buildings are housed in one campus. Therefore, transportation from one place to another is not a problem for our students. We have sports fields for our students to benefit from within the campus area. There are basketball courts, football fields, tennis courts and indoor sports halls. Students can benefit from these facilities in their spare time. In addition, we have a cinema within the Health, Culture and Sports Department. We provide our students with the chance to utilise their free time by organizing film programs on certain days of the week.
There are international students at our university. We have students from many countries coming here. Incoming students take Turkish courses either at our university or at other universities. In other words, they do not have any problems communicating with our current students. When our foreign students or international students come to our university, we, as the management, initiate an adaptation process for students of the university through contact with them. Therefore, there is no problem for incoming international or foreign students in terms of adaptation to the university. Since we are a technical university, it is necessary to use the technological infrastructure and the facilities in the best possible way. This is because all of our students come here with extensive experience of technological devices. Therefore, we provide digital facilities to our students in classrooms, laboratories and libraries to a very modern standard. This is because, in this way, by using the technological facilities and the physical use of digital technologies in these facilities is much more advantageous for our students and we observe that their learning is strengthened significantly. Our university is 1.5 kilometers away from the city center and roughly 1.5 kilometers from the airport and the bus terminal. Therefore, we can easily say that our university is not far from the city. We have a bus service every 10 minutes in order to ensure that our students can easily travel between the city and the university. In addition to this, we can say that our buses provide very convenient transportation both within the university campus and to the nearby university dormitories. The sports facilities at this university are extensive. We have many indoor and outdoor sports grounds. We have tennis courts, basketball courts, football fields and synthetic grass pitches. We also have indoor sports halls. All of which our students can benefit from for free. There are many sports teams that our students have set up at our university due to the wide range of sports facilities. These teams participate in national competitions both for winter and for summer sports. In addition, there are many technological and social innovation clubs that our students can participate in. Students that participate in these technological clubs also take part in many national technological competitions and represent our university in them. For example, as of this year, our students from the Civil Engineering Department won the first prize in the Earthquake Resistant Building Design Competition organized by the Natural Catastrophe Insurance Agency in Istanbul. Students from our Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department won a sponsorship award from the Scientific and Technological Research Council for their graduation project. Such achievements constitute important references for our students both in their educational and their professional life.
Our university campus provides a wide range of accommodation for those students coming from outside the city. There is the Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution dormitory which houses 1500 female students. Our university also has a private dormitory for 150 female students. This is of adequate capacity to meet the requirements of our university students. There is also a Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution dormitory located close to the campus for our male students. Thanks to these dormitories, it is possible to say that Erzurum provides an important opportunity for our students not to have housing problems. The university has been actively working—within the scope of the Barrier-Free University, Barrier-Free Buildings project—for disabled students. People with disabilities or disabled students can easily access the educational buildings by using the elevator services or the ramps placed outside the buildings. Since the foundation of our university we have designed our buildings with accessibility in mind. For example, the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture building— which covers an area of some 20 thousand square meters—is one of the first buildings of this size to receive a ‘green building’ certification. I can easily that this is one of the important education buildings to receive this certificate in terms of its accessibility and energy-saving.
One of the important missions of a university is internationalization. This is because staying at the local level is one of the most important factors threatening universities. In order not to remain localized, we have common agreements with many universities around the world facilitating internationalization. In addition, we have programs that enable our students to go abroad and receive education within the scope of Erasmus and similar bilateral exchange programs. One of our important goals is to create a synergy and to create a trend in terms of internationalization through having both students and staff from our university and from other universities engage in this internationalization. Within the scope of the Erasmus Program, not only our students go abroad, we also accept students from other countries. We are also working for the recognition of the degree our university awards abroad. We will be completing this work by the time our departments are at the stage to produce our first graduates and these students will be given a supplementary, internationally recognised, diploma. Erzurum Technical University is a new and dynamic university—as I mentioned earlier—and students can benefit from the many advantages offered by a new university. We can give the new university classrooms, the laboratories, the spaciously constructed libraries, the well-constructed technical infrastructure, the technological facilities in use at our university and the ease with which students can adapt to digital technologies as a few of the excellent reasons for students to choose us. We offer our students the maximum opportunity to continue their education and training in a peaceful university environment.
Our advice to families is that they make a choice in a conscious manner. While making your university preference examine their websites and their departments carefully. Evaluate meticulously, their staff, the infrastructure, the laboratories, the facilities, and the social and sport opportunities available. When making your preference, we can say that the choice of department is more important than the city, especially in terms of the quality of the departments—these are the important issues parents and students have to consider when making their choice. We request this from our parents and students. In this manner, the education they receive will of a higher quality for them, and they will have important opportunities in terms of finding a job when they graduate. Dear friends, Erzurum Technical University is a university where you will have many advantages and you will study in peace and security. We strongly recommend that you visit our website while making your preference. The facilities in our departments, the infrastructure, the academic staff, the sport and social facilities are all clear to see. You can always contact us. When you phone us or come to visit we will explain this to you in great detail and I can easily that when you choose this university you will not regret your choice.
