IU Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, having finished his first year at Istanbul University Rector Building, made a presentation at 7^th April, 2016 in IU Rector Building Doctorate Hall. Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, in his presentation, talked about the works which had been done at Istanbul University between the dates of April 2015-April 2016.

Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, started his duty at 3th April 2015 with the word that he will continue transparent, accountable, esteemed, and self-governing university approach throughout his duty and he has gone through his first year in his duty. In his presentation which he made because of the fact that he has gone through his first year, he shared with Istanbul University members; works, advances and achievements that has been done in that 1 year. In the presentation, 130 people attended apart from Senate of Istanbul University, our academics who have done their duty as deans, directors of Research and Application Center and heads of departments.

“We Are Istanbul University Members As Long As We Live”

Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, in his presentation, gave information on activities of governance, education, research, internationalization, corporate communication, and place designs. Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said that they will go through what has been done for 1 year that has passed at Istanbul University with the help of this presentation and added, “Being a part of Istanbul University starts the moment you register and go on as long as you live. Hereby, we try to benefit from Istanbul University pool and we continue to contribute as much as we can.”

Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said that for Istanbul University to be a brand, transparency, academic freedom, superiority of law, accountable and such concepts have a great effect and talked about corporate automation design and usage which is effective during the process of governing. He gave information on completed and continuing corporate automation projects.

“We Give Importance to Postgraduate Education”

Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, who talked about how much importance Istanbul University gives to postgraduate education, said that “We give great importance to postgraduate education. Our basic policy on this is to increase the numbers of postgraduate students and keep the number of undergraduate students stable and then decrease it. Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said that they have partly achieved this in 2015 with the number of students.

“The Need and Importance of Internationalization Works Increase”

Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak explained that the importance given to the internationalization works by Istanbul University increase day by day and added, “Istanbul, not only physically but also economically, culturally and in educational sense, connect Asia and Europe. In this case, the importance and need of our university, which represent Turkey among the world universities, having internationalization works increase day by day. Within the scope of internationalization, we continue our meeting to improve the bilateral relations between foreign country ambassador and consulates and collaborate. At this stage, we have 159 bilateral agreements with 55 countries, 600 Erasmus agreements with 27 European Union countries, 48 Mevlana program agreement with 17 countries. Also, we have 5747 international students from 149 different countries.”

Student Friendly University: Istanbul University

IU Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said that they have a student friendly and student centered education approach and added, “We have started a research project support for our undergraduate students. Besides, financial support and vehicles are provided by SKS for student tours and various activities. Places are provided for student events and organisations are supported. And in return, we feel proud by the success of our students.”

“We Are Proud to be Members of Istanbul University”

Stating that the graduates are also important for Istanbul University, Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said that the Amfistabul project, which aims to gather students, graduates, academics and administrative personnel together on the same platform, has been implemented by Istanbul University IT Department with the coordinatorship of IU Directorate of Press and Public Relations. Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said: “Our graduates make us proud to be a member of Istanbul University everywhere. The two Nobel Prize winners of our country are graduates of Istanbul University. Orhan Pamuk, who was awarded with Nobel Prize in Literature, is a graduate of our Faculty of Communication. Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar is a graduate of our Istanbul Faculty of Medicine and was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.”

“We Draw our Strength from Having a Scientific Quality”

Stating that Istanbul University draws its strength from having a scientific quality, Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak continued: “Istanbul University represents our country ideally by taking the lead in many lists both in national and international scale. Having ranked in the list of The Best 500 Universities of the World for 10 times, our university takes place near the top in many lists according to the success of our graduates and the number of publications per academic staff. The family of Istanbul University have a hand in this success.” Also adding that Istanbul University was entitled to get “The University Which Has Made the Most Patent Applications Prize” for having applied for 75 patents in 2015, Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak indicated Istanbul University will preserve this success by increasing the number of applications each passing day.

“Physical Infrastructure is Renewed Rapidly”

Remarking that the works for the renewal of Istanbul University’s physical infrastructure is continuing, Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak gave information about restoration works. Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said: “In most of our campuses the restoration and renewal process is ended as planned. Atatürk and Youth Monument’s restoration works are over. “II Bayezid Turkish Bath Culture Museum” is opened, which has great importance for our university. Our renewed senate hall has hosted many important meetings. Construction work of the Faculty of Political Sciences building continues. Additional building works which was planned to meet the classroom demand of Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education is completed. New building for Institute of Social Sciences is put into service.”

Speaking of many exercises being done in order to strengthen in-company communication, Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said: “We had the chance to exchange ideas with our university’s academic and administrative personnel during Good Practice Samples and Future Vision Workshops. We manifested corporate unity, solidarity and sense of belonging beautifully.” Mentioning the necessity of reaching out to every segment of society, Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak said that with this aim they stay the course of being an institution which has help from external partners and also contributes to them.

Saying that all this success belongs to great family of Istanbul University, Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak ended his speech wishing for more and better works.

Reporter: Kübra OBAY

Translators: Zeynep ÇELEBİ, Merve Ceren EROĞLU

IU Directorate of Press and Public Relations