Graduate School of Sciences Institutional

B. INSTITUTIONAL

1. About Us

At the Institute of Natural Sciences, postgraduate education is carried out in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Higher Education Law No. 2547, within the framework of the “Regulation on the Organization and Operation of Graduate Education Institutes” and the “Regulation on Graduate Education”, and the “Üsküdar University Graduate Education and Examination Regulation” published in the Official Gazette dated 08.01.2014 and numbered 28876.

Institute of Natural Sciences consists of a total of 29 programs, 16 with thesis and 13 without thesis.

Master's Program in Molecular Biology (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Molecular Biology in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Bioengineering (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Bioengineering in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Biotechnology (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Electrical-Electronics Engineering in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Computer Engineering in Turkish (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Computer Engineering in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Cyber Security in Turkish (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Cyber Security in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Artificial Intelligence Engineering (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Engineering Management (With Thesis)

Master's Program in Engineering Management in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Chemical Engineering (With Thesis)

Master's Program in Chemical Engineering in English (With Thesis/Without Thesis)

Master's Program in Bioinformatics (With Thesis)

2. Development

2.1. Institute Management

Assoc. Prof. Dr.  Muhammet Enis BULAK (Director)

Assist. Prof. Dr. Orkun KOZANOĞLU (Deputy Director)

Hülya DÜNDAR (Institute Secretary)

2.2. Institute Board 

2.3. Institute Administrative Board 

2.4 Quality Commission

2.5 Institute Bologna Coordination 

Institute Bologna Coordination 

2.6 Web Officers

2.7 Erasmus Officers-

INSTITUTE OF NATURAL SCIENCES ERASMUS COORDINATION AND DEPARTMENT OFFICERS

2.8. Commissions 

EDUCATION COMMISSION:

Commission Chair: Assist. Prof. Dr. Tuğba Bal

Deputy Commission Chair: Assist. Prof. Dr. Esma Ulusoy

Member: Prof. Dr. Burhan PEKTAŞ-Assist. Prof. Dr. Gamze USLU (Computer Engineering Turkish)

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatih Temiz, Research Assistant Mehmet Emin Geçer (Computer Engineering English)

Member: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar ŞEN-Assist. Prof. Dr. Mert Mehmet OYMAK (Chemical Engineering English)

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatih Temiz, Research Assistant Mehmet Emin Geçer (Computer Engineering)

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Handan Emişoğlu Külahlı, Assist. Prof. Dr. Maide GÖKÇE BEKAROĞLU (Bioengineering)

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Osman Murat Anlı; Assist. Prof. Dr. Orkun Kozanoğlu (Engineering Management)

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Nigar Kantarcı Çarşıbaşı (Bioinformatics)

Member: Prof. Dr. Emel SERDAROĞLU KAŞIKÇI, Research Assistant Ayşegül Yanık Ilgar (Molecular Biology (Turkish))

Member: Prof. Dr. Sevim Işık; Assist. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Sezer Zhmurov (Molecular Biology (English))

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Ahmet ŞENOL (Cyber Security TR-ENG.) 

Member: Assist. Prof. Dr. Nuri BİNGÖL (Artificial Intelligence Engineering) 

Rapporteur: Research Assistant Fatma Serra Çiftçi (Engineering Management)

Rapporteur: Research Assistant Ayşegül Yanık İlgar (Molecular Biology and Genetics (Turkish))

Course Schedule Preparation Commission 

Exam Schedule Preparation Commission 

Strategic Planning Commission 

Achievement Measurement and Evaluation Commission 

Graduation Commission 

Objectives

Strategic Objectives Strategic Targets (2024-2028)

Our Institute has established 12 strategic targets through the Quality Commission in order to achieve 4 main strategic objectives.

Objective 1: Strengthening Education and Training

When the educational programs are structurally analyzed; it has been observed that in some programs there are fewer faculty members compared to the number of courses, while in some programs, although the number of faculty members is sufficient, the number of courses per faculty member is high because there are too many courses. It has also been observed that some of the elective courses offered by the institute have never been selected. It may be considered to benefit from faculty members paid on an hourly basis for these areas. Regarding the content of the educational programs, the Institute of Natural Sciences aims to strengthen the structure of its programs in accordance with the requirements of contemporary education and training. The courses opened for this purpose are also diversified accordingly.

Strategic Target 1:

The curricula of the programs that include courses that have not been opened despite the diversity of elective courses will be strengthened and revised by the end of 2024. By communicating with the departments, the educational objectives of the programs, course structure, credit load, number of faculty members, student admission and thesis process will be evaluated, and arrangements will be made as a result of the studies.

Strategic Target 2: 

Students should be able to freely exercise their right to choose courses according to their own orientations and to take courses from other programs. These studies are important in terms of ensuring that students know their rights and responsibilities and creating a positive educational atmosphere within the institution. In this regard, our students will be enabled to benefit from elective courses to be offered in other institutes, and elective courses that can be offered in other institutes will also be opened in our institute to serve this purpose. In addition, in order to carry out academic advising activities more effectively, advising interview reports will be prepared, and advising activities will be monitored and recorded.

Strategic Target 3: 

Within the scope of internationalization, the experience gained through interactions such as participation in European University Association programs and Erasmus exchange programs will be transferred to Institute practices.

Strategic Target 4: Within the scope of the principle of lifelong learning, it is aimed to increase distance and continuing education activities and to ensure this culture and development through the trainings provided through the Continuing Education Center.

Objective 2: Developing Institutional Capacity

The main purpose of postgraduate education, and especially doctoral education, is to train scientists who are capable of conducting research independently. Therefore, the perhaps most distinctive feature of postgraduate education is that it is based primarily on research and the production of new knowledge. In addition, strategic targets have been established with the aim of enabling our students to benefit more from the institution's research and development opportunities, contributing to their research in laboratories, and making the entire capacity of the institution available at the postgraduate education level. Strategic targets have been set to enable our students to benefit from the entrepreneurship ecosystem, incubation centers and technoparks, and to contribute to the processes of developing ideas and products that they consider to have added value.

Strategic Target 1: 

With the aim of developing organizational functioning, human resources and institutional culture, all students will first be provided with basic training on the thesis process. Seminars on thesis writing, scientific research, ethics and creativity will be provided to all students within the institute. An advising training program will be developed to improve the advising process and to guide advisors. Within the framework of this program, guidelines defining institutional good practices and courses for faculty members who are newly beginning to provide academic advising will be organized. Studies will be conducted to benefit from EU resources and programs in this regard.

 Strategic Target 2: 

In order to improve organizational functioning, develop human resources, and provide institutional and academic contributions, the thesis process will be monitored more efficiently. The role of the advisor in the thesis process will be defined in greater detail. The quality of theses will be monitored through a measurable and traceable process. Publishing the results obtained from theses in journals indexed in international databases is among our institutional objectives. Surveys and evaluations will be conducted to assess the employment of graduates and their satisfaction in professional life.

Strategic Target 3:

 In order to assist our postgraduate students and graduates in their sectoral orientations, entrepreneurship training will be provided, and meetings with sector representatives will be organized so that external stakeholders can provide guidance in sectoral orientation processes. (External Stakeholder Survey: https://uskudar.edu.tr/tr/dis-paydas-anketi)

Objective 3: Developing Internationalization

At the Institute of Natural Sciences, courses within the discipline are generally preferred in postgraduate education. This situation causes education to be inward-looking and appears as an obstacle to development. Therefore, the Institute aims to expand practices that encourage change, such as taking courses between programs and from other institutes and increasing the proportion of elective courses. Developing relations with international educational organizations is of great importance as a means of obtaining information about the outside world and opening up to the outside world.

Within this framework, it is aimed to increase the number of international students at the Institute and the number of students participating in student exchange programs. We believe that increasing the activities of the Institute's Departments aimed at cooperation at the national and international levels will make a major contribution to the formation of an educational and research environment dominated by diversity and multiculturalism.

Strategic Target 1: 

The number of courses taken from and offered to other programs and other institutes, as well as the number of joint projects, will be increased in order to enhance the international experience of students and staff. For this purpose, activities such as reciprocal visits and faculty member exchanges will be carried out to increase the Institute's cooperation with equivalent institutions at home and abroad. Policies will be developed for the use of EU resources.

Strategic Target 2:

 Graduate education programs admitting foreign students and providing education in English will be opened in order to create a multicultural and international campus environment.

Strategic Target 3: 

Exchange programs will be expanded to increase the international quality of education and training. Within this framework, in addition to the activities specified in the 1st and 2nd strategic objectives, the preparation of the Institute catalog in Turkish and English will be completed, and efforts will be made to implement exchange programs during the thesis period. The Institute will guide and encourage these changes, which are largely at the initiative of the Departments. For this purpose, joint coordination will also be carried out with the International Office. In the development of Institute human resources, staff will be encouraged to participate in in-house language courses in order to increase their foreign language proficiency and provide foreign language support. In addition, the announcements and news sections on our institute website will be used more actively and frequently, and will also be shared in English.

Objective 4: Strengthening Cooperation with Stakeholders

In the field of Natural Sciences, especially with developing technology, the development of products that have strategic and economic value for our country is highly critical for health as well, in line with our ideal of producing value-added products, which is also a fundamental principle of the 10th Development Plan. The studies carried out in the sector, academia and abroad on a global scale in this field have once again demonstrated the importance of external stakeholders. With this objective, the focus has basically been placed on the 2 fundamental targets given below.

Strategic Target 1:

 In order to establish a culture of cooperation, within the framework of cooperation with universities, the private sector, public institutions and NGOs during the plan period, external stakeholders are intended to give seminars periodically under the title of sectoral meetings, to ensure that the needs of the sector and the objectives of academia overlap, and to revise curricula accordingly.

Strategic Target 2: 

With the aim of strengthening the infrastructure related to externally funded projects, trainings will be provided to inform and guide our students about the support programs announced especially by BİDEB (Science Human Resources Support Division), and they will be encouraged to apply for these supports.