Istanbul Kultur University (IKU) bid farewell to its graduates with the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 Academic Year Graduation Ceremony.

We bid farewell our graduates to the future with a ceremony attended by faculty members and parents. Considering the measures taken against the COVID-19 epidemic, at the graduation ceremony where approximately three thousand students graduated from eight faculties and two vocational schools on September 9-10, 2021 at the Sinan Erdem Sports Hall; We have had the rightful pride of graduating more than 30 thousand young people from dozens of countries in the 24 years since our establishment.

Our 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 graduates and their relatives were admitted to the hall with the HES Code, vaccination or PCR test certificate with a negative result, which was made within a maximum of 48 hours.

The opening speeches of the ceremony, which started with the singing of the National Anthem, were made by our Rector Prof. Dr. Hanife Öztürk Akkartal and our Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Bahar Akıngüç Günver. At the ceremony, our Faculty/Vocational School students also took the stage and gave their speeches.

Istanbul Youth and Sports Provincial Director Prof. Dr. Burhanettin Hacıcaferoğlu visited our university on Wednesday, September 8, and met with our Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Bahar Akıngüç Günver. During the visit, cooperation meetings were held on projects to be implemented for young people.

Our Rector Prof. Dr. Hanife Öztürk Akkartal shared her evaluations on the issues that constitute the September agenda of our university with the members of Kültür at the digital meeting titled “Kültür Agenda” held on Friday, September 3, 2021 at 15.00.

Stating that protocols were signed for university-industry cooperation in July and August, our Rector said, "The main aim here is to make a difference for our graduate students, as well as to increase employment opportunities with qualified graduates at the country level."

Our Rector Prof. Dr. Hanife Öztürk Akkartal continued her words as follows:

"Internationalization is one of the most important criteria that determines the quality in higher education. Since the day I took over the task, we have started to take our steps with a separate work plan. Our most important work on this issue is the signing of our International Internship Protocol, which will be implemented in the 2021-2022 Academic Year, with the German Management Academy."

Our Rector, who also talked about national cooperation, conveyed the details of the internship protocol between the Faculty of Architecture and MODOKO. Stating that the protocol will not be limited to the Faculty of Architecture only, Prof. Dr. Hanife Öztürk Akkartal said that our Law and Engineering Faculties will also be involved in the process.

Expressing that we have contacts with the Governor's Office, Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, our Rector said, "Especially with the initiatives of our Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Sinan Alçın, we have started some projects within the scope of social responsibility in which the universities in the region will participate, with the Küçükçekmece District Governorship. We take care that it adds employment and professional experience and that it is sustainable."

Underlining that September is very important, our Rector explained in detail the short, medium and long-term goals.

IKU IEEE Club has been working under the coordination of Culture Point for about a year to represent our university in the best way possible in the TEKNOFEST 2021 competition. Our students managed to become finalists in all three categories by competing with the teams in the following categories at TEKNOFEST 2021.

1. Kırmızı Kanatlar Team in the Fighting UAV category
2. Kuasar Team in Technology for Humanity category
3. Lupus Roket Team in the Medium Altitude Category

Among the final competitions, the "Combating UAV category" will be held at Bursa Yunuseli Airport, the "Technology for the Benefit of Humanity" category will be held at Istanbul Atatürk Airport, and the "Medium Altitude" category will be held in Aksaray Salt Lake with the dates and details below. Our advisors will also be present in the competition areas with our teams throughout the competition.

Competing in the Combat UAV category at Bursa Yunuseli Airport, our Kırmızı Kanatlar Team gave an interview to Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Deputy Minister of Industry and Space. We would like to thank our students and advisors, who have gone through a long and tiring process to reach this point.

"Dear Researchers,

"The Journal of Education as Live", which is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by our university, has been published with 24 articles (21 Research/3 Review Articles) in the 35th volume, 2nd issue.

We invite you to review, read and share articles with valuable researches with your colleagues.

To access the full issue: http://journals.iku.edu.tr/yed/index.php/yed/issue/view/140

Kind regards,
Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Toran
Editor"

The 2nd of the Architectural Episodes symposium, the first of which was held on November 15-16, 2018, hosted by Istanbul Kültür University Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, “Architecture Series 02: New Dialogues in Architectural Education and Practice (ARCHITECTURAL EPISODES 02: NEW DIALOGUES IN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICE)” will be held on 24-25 March 2022 as a hybrid.

Istanbul Kültür University provides shuttle services between male and female student dormitories, Ataköy, İncirli, Şirinevler and Basın Ekspres campuses. Down below you can find the tables showing the hours of our services according to their routes.

The trainings of the TÜBİTAK 4005 Project, led by Prof. Dr. Birsen Tütüniş, one of the faculty members of the Department of Foreign Language Education, started on Monday, September 6, 2021. The opening of the project was made by our Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Sinan Alçın, Büyükçekmece District Governor Dr. Mehmet Özel and Büyükçekmece National Education Director Hasan Uygun. The main purpose of the project is to provide Technology and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) training to English teachers for the students aged 8-12 in Büyükçekmece district, and in this context, teachers can teach English by using the latest digital tools (web 2.0 tools) and resources.

Esil Alawa, a 2020 graduate of Istanbul Kultur University, Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, has earned the right to continue her graduate education at Illinois Institute of Technology. She shared this success with the following words.

“I am Esil Alava, A Syrian-Turkish student graduate from Istanbul Kültür University in 2020 from Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design.

During the graduation semester I applied for Construction Management Master Program at Illinois Institute of Technology and got admitted with my 3.65 gpa. With the support of my professors and my grades I got the chance to join the program.

Being an İKU's graduate helped me to got accepted because of the educational qualifications the Architecture Faculty have. It was my pleasure to be the only Turkish student to be accepted at Illinois institute of technology in the United States for this year.

I am so glad to be one of İKÜ's students and will be always thankful for the support and effort our professors provided to us.”

Istanbul Kultur University English Language and Literature Department filled its quota by 100% in 2021, according to the data of OSYM "Table-4 Higher Education Undergraduate Programs Taking Students with Central Placement in 2021". We congratulate all our students who have chosen our department and wish to see you all among us in a healthy and happy manner in the new academic year.

Istanbul Kultur University (IKU) Industrial Engineering Department 4th year students; Ece Malkoç, Buket Yekdeş, Bilgesu Bayır and Yasemin Kalender were entitled to receive support within the scope of TÜBİTAK 2209 B Industry-Oriented Undergraduate Research Projects Support Program for their graduation projects called "E-commerce Warehouse Location Determination", which they prepared under the consultancy of Duygun Fatih Demirel.

The Peer Mentoring Program, which started in the 2017-2018 Academic Year with the aim of facilitating the first year students’ experience, contributing to their personal development and helping them gain corporate belonging, continues with the 5th term mentors within the scope of the 2021-2022 Academic Year.

“Basic Mentoring Training” was held on September 1, 2021 with a team of peer mentors consisting of 123 volunteers. 100 candidate mentors participated in the training held over Microsoft TEAMS. The training was given by Mücella Ezgin, Deputy Head of Kültür Point Unit.

In the training, where the concept of mentoring and the mentor-mentee relationship were covered in detail, expectations from peer mentors were discussed and how the process would progress was shared. The training, which lasted approximately one and a half hours, ended after the evaluation made with the MentiMeter application.

In order to inform our students about our university, which will be their new home throughout their higher education life, and to seek answers to their questions, IKU Kültür Point will organize a "Digital Education Orientation Program" on Monday, September 13, 2021 via Adobe Connect Virtual Classroom Application.

The program is as follows: 

SAP ORION Student Applications: 10.30 - 12.00
IKU-IT Services: 13.00 -14.30
IKU-CATS Training: 15.30 - 17.00 

Could you briefly describe yourself? Who is Erdi Murat in 2-3 sentences?

I was born in İstanbul, 1990. I’ve completed my primary and middle high education also in İstanbul. I received my undergraduate education at Istanbul University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, TV and Cinema. I worked as an editor at Cumhuriyet newspaper, Mynet and Beyaz TV, respectively. In general, I can say that I am curious, have a positive outlook on life, and love to travel, have fun and learn.

How did your participation in Kültür Family evolve?

The date I met Istanbul Kültür University is the beginning of 2018. I knew that my colleague from Mynet,  Ahmet Aygün Yılmaz started working at IKU. When we got together, he was talking about the quality, structure of Istanbul Kültür University and the value of working in an institution that is in every part of education. Actually, I was curious about it after what he told me. Later on, he told me that they needed personnel and if the job interview would develop positively, he would like to work together with me, again. After the meetings and talkings we have made, I participated in Kültür Family, in March 2018, as Editor of Web&Content.

What are the things that IKU adds to you?

I was always in the media sector during and after my undergraduate study. It was the first time for me to work in the education sector even though I was always in education. I was worried but I was not afraid. After a very short time starting to work, I adapted. At first, we were a small team working under the General Secretariat. After that, we were incorporated into the Department of Information Systems and Technologies. I made such good friendships here. Having fun while working, learning new things every day, and being able to stay calm and come up with solutions under the time of crisis are the some of the beautiful things that IKU adds me.

Is there an unforgettable memory in the Kültür part of your life?

Every day I spend with my team is a memory for me. Especially, when we celebrate birthdays and special days in our lives, those days are some of the values that will never be forgotten.

The world is going through a difficult period. How did you spend the pandemic process? What has this process changed in your life?

Our university management conducted the pandemic process very successfully. We were switched into an at-home-working system while putting employees’ health before everything else. At first, I had a hard time adapting to it. I was not fit for staying at home as a person. Sometimes I felt like I was drowning but I was aware of the fact that this process was for securing our health. I acted by following the rules as much as I could and thinking about my own and my family's health. I understood the value of freedom much better.

We have been seperated from our work environment for a long time. What are your thoughts on the new normal these days when our settlements are starting to open?

I missed being with my co-workers very much. Even though I am waiting impatiently for the day that pandemic completely ends, I am aware of the fact that it will not be soon. I hope everything sorts itself out in a short time and we continue to our lives where we left them.

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