UB is working toward a new, more international future in the hopes of providing its students with the most opportunities possible.
To achieve this and to strengthen UB's academic opportunities, UB President John Simpson visited two institutional partners in Turkey from Sept. 26 to Oct. 4.
While there, Simpson, along with his wife, Katherine, and Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education, met with UB alumni in Turkey and renewed an exchange agreement with Istanbul Technical University.
The SUNY system began a Memorandum of Understanding with the Turkish Council of Higher Education in 2002, which established a partnership between SUNY and a number of leading Turkish universities to create a dual-diploma program at SUNY institutions, including UB.
'Turkey is an important U.S. ally and a strategic country which spans Europe and Asia,' Dunnett said. 'It has a very diverse and rich culture and a very fine system of higher education. UB has exchange agreements with the top two universities in Turkey which offer many exciting educational opportunities for UB students.'
Among these educational opportunities are the joint degree program in civil and environmental engineering between ITU and UB, which began in 2004 and 2006, respectively. These engineering programs won the Andrew Heiskell Award For Innovation in International Education two years ago.
During his time at ITU, Simpson met the newly enrolled freshmen students in the civil engineering program.
In the dual-degree program, students divide their time between taking courses at ITU and UB. These students complete their first and third-year academic courses at ITU and their second- and fourth-year courses at UB. Upon their graduation, they receive two Bachelor of Science degrees, one from each university.
According to Defne Korur, director of the ITU Office of International Relations, 140 Turkish students will study at UB under the terms of this agreement.
'We also hope to start sending UB students to study in Turkey – at both Bilkent and ITU,' Korur said.
Nine students in the first dual-diploma program in civil engineering graduated from UB in 2008. Eighteen received their B.S. degrees in civil engineering in 2009. As of fall 2009, there are 109 students from ITU at UB. There are 27 such dual-degree programs carried out between Turkish universities and U.S. universities. However, only Turkish students participate in the program.
'It is important for American students to engage in study abroad in order to become more globally competent,' Dunnett said. 'Increasingly, American graduates must compete for jobs in an ever more globalized workforce and market place. Graduates who speak foreign languages and who have had international experience will have an advantage in the global job market.'
According to Korur, the top 50 students are then recruited to the civil engineering program.
'Due to the adoptability skills of our students and them being culturally capable in the global world, they have been offered good jobs,' Korur said.
Besides ITU, Simpson and other UB officials also visited Bilkent University, a distinguished private university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The group also toured the Institute of Material Science and Nanotechnology, a national research facility and center of excellence in nanotechnology.
According to Dunnett, the group then met with the rectors (presidents) and provosts of both ITU and Bilkent, along with many of the deans and faculty that work with UB on the mutual exchange agreements.
Since this was Simpson's first visit to Turkey, the group also toured the campuses and facilities of these two universities.
The admission procedure to higher education institutions in Turkey is significantly based on a Central University Entrance Examination, which is administered to roughly 2 million students every year.
In addition to visiting the two Turkish universities, Simpson and Dunnett also attended a reception with about 40 UB Turkish alumni in Istanbul. The reception, held in the Turkish Cultural Center, gave Simpson the opportunity to update the Turkish alumni chapter on the progress of UB's 2020 plan.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
