İstanbul Kültür University (IKU) Faculty of Economics and Administration Department of International Trade and Finance and UCIM - Saadet Teacher Child Abuse Prevention Association have launched a branded course titled “Freedom and Welfare with UCIM” as part of their collaboration. The course will be delivered by Assoc. Prof. Meri Taksi Deveciyan, a faculty member of the Department of International Trade and Finance, with UCIM experts contributing as guest lecturers throughout the semester. It is expected to stand out as one of the exemplary models of university-civil society collaboration.

UCIM is a powerful civil society organization working to ensure that children live in a safe, fair, and free world. Through this collaboration, students of the IKU Department of International Trade and Finance will learn not only about economic and financial issues but also about social awareness, ethical values, and social responsibility.

An Academic Approach with Social Sensitivity

The "Freedom and Welfare with UCIM" course aims to strengthen the awareness of freedom, ethical values, and social responsibility, which are the foundations of sustainable welfare. In this course, students will address the concepts of individual freedom and social welfare with a focus on children's rights. They will focus on awareness of preventing child abuse, the legal responsibilities, the psycho-social support approaches, and the protective-social preventive mechanisms in an interdisciplinary manner.

A New Step in Social Responsibility

The course, which will be conducted under the UCIM brand, aims to increase young people's sensitivity to social issues, strengthen their ethical awareness, and educate students to become individuals who can contribute to sustainable welfare on a global scale.

Protocol

The cooperation protocol between UCIM and our University was signed on Friday, December 26, 2025, under the auspices of our Rector, Prof. Dr. Fadime Üney Yüksektepe. In this context, it is expected that our collaborations will continue to increase in the new term and that our students will contribute to social benefit.

Organized by the Service Exporters’ Association (HİB), the “2053 Vision Workshop on International Student Recruitment in Türkiye” was held on December 29, 2025, at the Şehit Ömer Halisdemir Conference Hall of the Foreign Trade Complex, with the aim of enhancing Türkiye’s capacity for international student recruitment, strengthening policy processes, and establishing a holistic roadmap in line with the 2053 vision. Representatives from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), the Ministry of National Education (MEB), the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Interior, as well as agents and international office staff, attended the workshop. Our Head of the International Relations Unit, Seçkin Taygun Altıntaş, and Mustafa Anıl Altun represented our university at the workshop. Acting as the moderator at the table themed “Promotion, Representations, and Agency Networks,” Altıntaş took the stage at the end of the workshop to deliver general evaluations.

A technical visit to the Haberturk.com newsroom was organized by the Department of New Media and Communication. During the event held on Thursday, December 18, 2025, students who participated had the opportunity to observe the operational processes of a professional broadcasting platform on site and to witness the stages of news production for digital media.

The "Best Project Exhibition and Awards", organized by the Department of Architecture, was held on Thursday, December 25, 2025, in the C corridor on the 2nd floor at the Ataköy building of the Bakırköy Campus.
The award winners, in a ceremony attended by faculty members and students, are as follows:
"ARC0002 Architectural Design II" & ASAWIR BARAKAT
"ARC0004 Architectural Design IV" & NOUR EL OMAR
"ARC0006 Architectural Design VI" & OSMAN SÖYLEMEZ
"ARC0080 Graduation Project" & ABDULRAHMAN ALTAYEB

The "Graduation Project" award, won by our graduate from the Department of Architecture, Abdulrahman Altayeb, was accepted by Prof. Dr. Neslihan Dostoğlu and Lecturer Dr. Suzan Sanlı Esin due to his ongoing postgraduate studies at Politecnico di Milano.

We congratulate our students and graduates and wish them continued success.

A study presented by our Industrial Engineering Department faculty members at the “24th International Conference on Modeling & Applied Simulation (MAS 2025)”, held in Fes, Morocco between September 17-19, has been published in the International Multidisciplinary Modeling & Simulation Multiconference (I3M 2025) proceedings and made available online.

Full text paper: Use of Agent-Based Simulation Models: A Review for First Responder Capabilities in Disaster Response
Authors: Res. Assist. Oğuz Emir, Assist. Prof. Okay Işık, Prof. Dr. Murat Ermiş

Paper access link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050925037342

The “2025 Akıngüç Award Ceremony,” to be presented in the field of “Future Tools in Education: Artificial Intelligence and Beyond,” will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2026, at 14.00 at the Akıngüç Auditorium and Art Center in the Ataköy Building of the Bakırköy Campus.