Department of Architecture

Hello, I am Assoc. Prof Emine SAKA AKIN, Head of the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Yozgat Bozok University. Yozgat Bozok University, affiliated to Erciyes University, was established in 1994 under the name of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture and started education and training. In 2006, when Yozgat Bozok University was established, Yozgat Bozok University, Faculty of Engineering-Architecture, Department of Architecture, provides education. Since the day it was affiliated to Erciyes University in 1994, it has continued to provide education and training for 29 years without interruption. Also since 2020, we started to provide our master's degree education.
In our department, we continue our education and training with 3 associate professors, 3 faculty members, 2 lecturers, 3 research assistants and 11 full-time lecturers. In addition, there are also part-time lecturers from outside the institution and 4 or 5 lecturers from within the institution each semester, continuing education and training in our department on a part-time basis. At this point, when we compare the number of students with the number of lecturers, I can say that we are conducting our courses very efficiently.
In architecture departments, applied courses are generally essential and intensively continue as applied courses. In this regard, every semester for 4 years, in other words 8 semesters, we have what we call studio or project courses. These courses are one-to-one courses between the student and the lecturer, and for this reason, our student and lecturer relations are warmer. Each instructor knows and recognises each student at this point. Studio courses are our basic courses for 8 semesters and they are about designing all kinds of buildings from housing to education, culture or any other building we can think of. In addition to these studio courses, we also have urbanism, building project, survey and restoration project courses. Of course, in order to create the background of these basic courses, we have courses on design and its criteria; we also have technical drawing and other courses related to the structure in order to transfer these criteria or these design ideas to a paper. In our theoretical courses, the history of architecture from the past to the present, these are courses that are not only building-based but also include the social and economic conditions of that period. In addition, we also have courses on technical drawing. It is also a department that requires patience.
The most basic requirement for the architecture department is studio ateliers. At this point, we have a sufficient number of studios in our faculty and department. There is already one for each class. Besides, we have classrooms. We also have all kinds of physical facilities such as computer laboratories, exhibition areas, seminar halls where we can carry out our activities.
When we pass from the second year to the third year of the architecture department and from the third year to the fourth year, there are two compulsory internships in the summer term. These compulsory internships are 30 working days in the second year, the first internship is a construction site internship and the second internship is an office internship. These internships are mandatory. In addition, the last 8th semester project of our 8 projects is the studio project, which we call our graduation or diploma project. This project is of course more comprehensive than all semesters.
In our department, as in Turkey and in our university, our students also have ERASMUS opportunities. These opportunities are available for our students after the foreign language exam and interview opened by the university every year, ERASMUS, that is, the student exchange programme with abroad, is available at this point. In addition to this, there is also the Farabi exchange programme, which we call the student exchange programme in the country. With this, our students go to other universities and continue their education and training.
The graduates can establish their own offices or they can work in other established companies or in offices established by another private architect. They can work in universities and all kinds of public institutions. At this point, work opportunities are very wide. They can also work in municipalities and local administrations. In addition to this, since we educate students who are self-confident, able to work multidisciplinary, have strong analytical skills, have strong social relations, the formation given by architectural education, they have the opportunity to work in many different fields after graduation. Especially in recent years, with digitalisation, we have seen students, after graduation, working in computer games programming, background designing, theatre or cinema sector.

Since the department of architecture is a multidisciplinary field of study, it requires people who are versatile, who read a lot, who are curious, who have high analytical skills and who are patient. Because we have to meet all kinds of needs of people. We have to meet not only physical but also psychological needs. This is the necessity of a good design. At this point, we expect them to be patient and determined. If they show good patience and perseverance, they can become a successful architect or a successful person working in another field. These are my recommendations. I wish success to our students who will enter the exam. We are looking forward to everyone to Yozgat Bozok University Department of Architecture.