Department of Mining Engineering

Hello, I'm Associate Professor Hasan Hacıfazlıoğlu. After graduating from Istanbul Technical University in 2002, I worked in the private sector for a certain period of time. Meanwhile, I completed my master's and doctorate studies. I was appointed to Istanbul University in 2010. I became an associate professor in 2015 and now I am waiting for my professorship. I am working as a lecturer at Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa. I will inform you about our department. There are a total of 22 lecturers in our department, 14 of whom are professors and associate professors and the others are research assistants. There are approximately 16 students per faculty member. We do not have many students in our department, students are always in contact with the lecturers. We help them out as much as we can. In addition, our average age is very low. Since the average age of our lecturers is 39, we are in close contact with young people. So I can say that we share the same boat with them. Let me talk about the courses we provide. We have two main fields: Mining and Mineral Processing. The courses given about these two fields try to answer such questions like “How do we mine? How do we differentiate the ores? How do we distinguish between gold and stone? Since our department is a multidisciplinary department, it does not consist of only these courses. For example, a good Mining Engineer must also be a good Mechanical Engineer, Civil Engineer, Metallurgical Engineer, and Chemical Engineer. Because we also offer courses on metallurgy, construction and machinery. If we do not teach these courses, the student goes to the mine as an engineer when he graduates. While working in mines, they come across chemistry and machinery related issues. For example, they will open tunnels, excavate, and right then they need to know the subjects of Civil Engineering. Therefore, our department is a very fun derpartment. It consists of many branches of engineering. In addition, with our courses on Mining Law and Labor Law, our students will obtain a certain level of knowledge on law before they graduate. Students who enrol in our department also have the chance to study abroad. We participate in exchange programs such as Mevlana, Erasmus and Farabi. A student from our department can go to other universities abroad or in turkey for two or three semesters. We have both Turkish and 30% English programs. Our students can choose among both. We have dormitory facilities both in Büyükçekmece and Avcılar Campuses for our students coming from outside of Istanbul, a cafeteria for our students with grants, a gym, a swimming pool, and a medical center in which Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa doctors are employed. When a student comes here, we provide everything, cafeterias, accommodation, and healthcare. Our students are quite lucky.
Our department has many laboratory facilities. We have about ten laboratories and some of them are accredited. An accredited laboratory is a laboratory which meets international standards. This includes a wide variety of laboratories such as the Mineral Processing Laboratory, the Mining Laboratory, and the computer laboratory. After the theoretical courses, we get the students to work in laboratories. They do not graduate without conducting studies in a laboratory. In addition, when they make it to the fourth grade, one advisor is assigned to our student in our graduation project course. They complete theoretical studies with their advisor first, then work in the laboratory and prepare and present their thesis. Most of the graduation projects from our department are published in the form of articles in international or national journals or presented at congresses. The moment the student graduates, they are a part of the academy. This is something that most universities do not have. Most of our students' dissertations are accepted as publications and presented at symposiums and congresses. We also have technical trips. Technical trips consist of going to various mines in Anatolia a couple of times. At the end of the second and third year, we provide 20 + 20 internship programs. What does a mining engineer do? Let's answer the question. A Mining Engineer uncovers underground and above ground resources and provides them to the market. Let’s say there’s a mine. They prepare the technology, infrastructure and project required to extract it, extract the ore from there and present it to the market. After extracting from the mine, it sometimes cannot be sold. At this stage, the Mining Engineer has to separate the ores. This separation process is a part of preparing the ores. A department was opened, the Mineral Processing Engineering Department. Students in our department also become experts in preparing this ore. When our students graduate, they can work both in the mineral processing industry and in the mining industry. Since Mining Engineering is a multidisciplinary department, you have the opportunity to work in most places. For example; they can work in glass, ceramic, energy industry, cement production, and thermal power plants. Our graduate students can find a job much more easily than other people. There are approximately 20,000 licensed mine sites in Turkey and the need for 20.000 Mining Engineers. Since they can work in different sectors, we need 40,000 Mining Engineers in total. Every year around 300 people graduate from Mining Engineering Departments in Turkey. There is no shortage of jobs in Mining Engineering. Students who will come to this department need to be brave. Mining Engineering is not an easy profession. When required, you have to go down 2000 meters below ground and detonate tons of dynamite. Therefore, we are waiting for students who are not afraid of such jobs to Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa Mining Engineering Department. I wish everyone success.