Labor Economics and Industrial Relations

Hi, I'm Associate Professor Cigdem Vatansever. I am the Head of the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. The Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations focuses on social events and the problems of labor by incorporating different perspectives. These perspectives focus on legal, social and economic aspects. In this sense, labor economics and industrial relations are a multidisciplinary field and consist mainly of the fields of law, sociology, psychology and economics. The courses given in our department can also be discussed within the framework of the departments of labor economics and industrial relations. In this regard, I can count labor economics, social policy, industrial relations, labor and social security law and human resources management as part of our profession. The courses given within this framework consist of labor law, labor psychology, labor economics and industrial relations courses. The most important focus of our department consists of the field, working life and working individuals, but also from a social policy point of view, all groups such as disadvantaged people, disabled people, and equality/inequality between men and women are all the focus of our field. For this reason, we provide applied courses beginning in the first year. In order to encourage our students to take part in the field, to enable them to learn about data collection, social psychology in the first grade, then research methods courses, applied collective bargaining course and, most importantly, the graduation project seminar course is provided. We very much want and support our students to actually obtain work experience both during the semester and during the summer period. Although it is not mandatory, an internship regulation has been proposed for the department of labor economics and we have commissioned this. In addition, they gain experience in field applications by preparing a graduation project, in the form of a seminar course in the 8th semester, and it is important that they successfully present the field research as a group in order to graduate. We evaluate these presentations, and have fun time doing that. We have a very active departmental community and as a department we carry out these activities together. Thus, it is possible to carry out scientific and academic projects with our students. In this sense, we have organized many national events from occupational safety to human resources applications to cooperatives, and also, an international Department of Labor Economics Industrial Relations Symposium will be held in 2021.
There are job opportunities in both the private and public sectors for the students of the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, but research has shown that students mostly find employment in the private sector. In this sense, there are many areas from sales from unions to companies to human resources management that they can find work at. We have a Namik Kemal University Graduates of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations group on linkedin. When we check this group, we see that almost all of them work in the private sector, some in municipalities, and a few are entrepreneurs. Most of the employees in the private sector work in the field of human resources management, followed by banking, finance and sales. I recommend that all candidates coming to the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations to know about themselves, know what they want and not choose this department because of their entrance scores. In this sense, if they decide to come to our university, our department, I strongly recommend that they take english preparatory education. Although there are vocational English courses in our department, I believe that English will be very important to them. Also, I would like candidates who want to apply to our department to check the social media accounts of our department, and the accounts of our master’s program. I told you we have a really active community, and we're very active on social media. We do movie screenings, related to the course material. Sometimes we have discussions about it. I believe that everyone who is an active member of the community will improve themselves a lot. A big part of our students are from Istanbul, and after that we have students from various cities of Trakya, especially from Tekirdağ. My message to those coming from Istanbul is that Tekirdag is on its way of becoming a peaceful and “slow” city. Our campus is a very green spacious campus and very close to the Değirmenaltı Disctrict, which has become a student village in its own right. There are cafes, there are many social events, there are social events held by the municipality. There's a cinema close by. Tekirdag is very close to Istanbul but much calmer, and also by the sea, it is a city of agriculture. On the other hand, in this sense, I can say that Tekirdağ is a truly student-friendly city, that is ready to embrace you. So is our campus. So are the departments. We are waiting for everyone who wants to improve themselves, who wants to improve themselves by participating in various activities. I wish you to prepare well for your exams, and to succeed in them. All the best.