Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry has been ranked 84^th in URAP 2015-2016 Field Based Ranking and it became the highest ranked faculty in Turkey. We talked about this success with the Dean of Faculty of Dentistry, Prof. Dr. Gülsüm Ak.

Stating that they are very proud of this success, IU Dean of Faculty of Dentistry Prof. Gülsüm Ak said “The biggest factor for this success is that we have a team of competent and leader lecturers and academicians. Our faculty is the first, oldest and most preferred faculty in Turkey. Therefore it has always led the way to the other faculties and continues to do so. Our faculty is the leader in the field of treatment just as well as in the academic publishing productivity.”

“Lecturers and Students Work Harmoniously”

Mentioning that dental education consists of both theoretical and practical studies, Prof. Dr. Gülsüm Ak remarked students carry their bedside practices under the watch of professors, and that the faculty’s aim is to train dentists who are successful at what they do and committed to the ethical values, and who contribute to the oral and dental health. Prof. Dr. Gülsüm Ak continued saying, “Universities are not only for getting a profession and education. They are also institutions that do sciences, train scientists, put scientific projects into practice and so effect the society. Scientific researches and studies are important not only in graduate education but also in undergraduate education to train future scientists. We should realize that with the activities of IU Dental Students Research Club. Our students represent our faculty in national and international symposiums and congresses with success.

Prof. Dr. Gülsüm Ak, who talks about the importance of technical devices and materials in the dentistry education, said that they followed the recent international developments and treatment methods in Faculty of Dentistry and also they practiced the processes that require technical opportunities as datum center.

Prof. Dr. Gülsüm Ak, implying that some scientific datum are necessary for evaluation of higher education institutions according to their academic successes, put an end to her speech by saying: “YÖK( The Council of Higher Education) evaluates according to the datum such as numbers of publications, citations, citations per capita, total documentations and documentations per capita, postgraduates, students per faculty members which are acquired from reliable sources like Web of Science. These kinds of studies and evaluations help the faculties to compare their academic performances with other faculties and to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Translated by: Eda Aydemir, İrem Yaşar

IU Department of Press and Public Relations