Marine Transportation Engineering

Hello, I am Ender Yalçın, Head of Maritime Transportation Engineering Department at Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University. I have about 11 years of academic experience, and I have work experience in the private sector for about eight years. Our department has obtained international accreditation. The students take the exam prepared by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and become long-distance watchkeeping officers. We have many graduates who are captains now. The courses given in the department are multi-staged. Courses such as Mathematics and Physics are given as basic engineering courses. In the following years, vocational courses are given. Vocational courses are in accordance with the STCM Convention, that is, the contract for the training and certification of ship fields. The courses are divided into two, operational and managerial. After the first year, students take these courses. Our department has international accreditation. Therefore, all infrastructures are at the international level. There are laboratories and training infrastructures like ship bridge simulators, sea communication laboratories, and navigational laboratories. Apart from our central campus, seafarers receive safety and fire training at sea at Edincik Naval Training Campus. The students are subject to one year of compulsory internship. The first two of the three-part internship is carried out during the first year summer term, and the second year summer term, for 75 days. The last internship is in the second semester of the third year. When the summer period is included in this, it becomes a period of approximately 7 months. 3 internships take 1 year in total. Currently, students from abroad come to our university thanks to the Erasmus program. We have enough capacity that almost all of the students who apply go to Erasmus.
We are not currently accepting students to our department. We aim to start accepting students next year by completing all our facilities and infrastructures. In this context, we have not yet organized a national or international organization. However, various career days are organized within the Maritime Faculty. In the past years, the world's largest company managers have come to this organization. Graduates acquire the title of long distance watch officer. They will primarily be employed on ships as long-distance watchkeeping officers, captains. A study has shown that the duration of working at sea for the graduates of maritime departments is between 3 and 5 years in Turkey. Therefore, this does not mean that the students can work at sea for life. We expect the majority of these students to work in the sea for such a long time and then benefit from other job opportunities. They can work in ship management companies. They can work on issues related to ship insurance. They can work in agencies. They can work in various public institutions and organizations. Recently, there has been a serious recruitment, especially in ministries and universities, and in the public sector. There are also employment opportunities there. However, main employment opportunities are in the private sector. Rather than the courses that our students have difficulty with, the most difficult time is usually the internship periods. In particular, students' first internship experiences are very important, as they are getting to know the ship and keeping up with the working order of the ships. In these first internships, we will provide orientation training to students in the coming days in order to ensure faster adaptation. We will teach maritime customs and traditions. We'll give them a chance to get to know the ship faster. Since this is an international field, the better your English skills, the more success you have. Our most important advice to students is to improve their English language skills. We think that by improving their English, they will quickly come to good positions in the sector. As far as we can see, most of our students come from outside the province of Balıkesir, from the Marmara, Aegean Regions, and the Mediterranean Region. We anticipate that the students who will attend our department will also come from seaside regions. The most important advantage of Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University is its location. We think that the candidates who will come from such places will have an advantage. The maritime sector is managed in Istanbul. Anything to do with maritime activities is located here. Thanks to our location, we also provide sectoral advantages to students. We aim to bring them together with the sector. Let me talk about the benefits of our university. It is a newly established but rapidly developing university. It is a university that has the necessary infrastructure for maritime education. We are planning to provide students with many activities, including water sports, within our university in the future. In addition, there are projects related to the construction of various dormitories and buildings within our university to accommodate the students who will come to Balıkesir from other provinces. The number of our students is increasing exponentially. Thanks to this, we think we will become a student city. I wish good luck to all candidates who will take the university exam. We look forward to seeing you at the Maritime Faculty next year. I wish you all success.