The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect research assistants’ career decision-making processes through a scaling study using the pair-wise comparison method. The study was conducted with 166 research assistants from 50 different universities in Turkey who were reached via electronic mail. The results of the study indicate that the most important factor affecting research assistants’ career decision-making is the dynamic nature and openness for improvement of the profession. This was followed by a free working environment, the desire for scientific study and the prestige of the profession. Moreover, the least effective factors in research assistants’ career decision making were determined as family guidance and salary.

Postgraduate education, which is regarded as necessary in the field of education in order to improve the qualifications of teachers seen as culture workers, has become more important than it used to be. In this context, the attitudes of prospective teachers toward pursuing a postgraduate education are crucial. In this study, all of the components, including grades, scores and the attitudes of prospective teachers were interpreted by a fuzzy logic-based evaluation for admission to postgraduate education. The attitudes of the underpostgraduate students towards postgraduate education were determined according to ‘the Postgraduate Attitude Scale’. The students’ four year college grade point averages and ‘academic personnel and postgraduate education entrance exam’ scores were also taken into account, and their eligibility for postgraduate education was assessed by using fuzzy logic rules. The study was conducted with 155 prospective teachers who were underpostgraduate students in the program of mathematics teaching for elementary school. During the study, after the test operation was done with one-third of the data, an 80.77% result of the general prediction rate was obtained. These results were further analyzed in detail, and 76 out of 96 students who were eligible for postgraduate education and 48 out of the 59 remaining students were predicted correctly. The data obtained from the study was assessed using fuzzy logic methods, and this approach has proven to reach more effective and accurate results.

This study aims to propose a model for determining teacher candidates’ intentions to use interactive white boards in their future lessons. To this end, the factors that affect behavioral intentions of teacher candidates and the types of relations between these factors were discovered through the use of Structural Equation Modeling. The participants of the study consisted of 153 senior students in Faculty of Education at Atatürk University. The results showed that the model developed in the study explained 44% of variance in teacher candidates’ intentions to use interactive white boards in their future lessons. According to this model, the factors of performance expectancy and social influence had an impact on the behavioral intentions of teacher candidates. While the factor of effort expectancy did not affect behavioral intentions significantly, it was revealed that the factors of effort expectancy and social influence played a role in performance expectancy. In this respect, a focus during pre-service teacher education on the functions of interactive white boards in teaching and learning, their positive outputs and the issues related to practice is essential for designing effective course content of interactive computer technology.

This study is the first of two different studies that were done/are to be done on the department, education, and the relationship between teaching staff and students of the surveying (geomatics) engineering departments in Turkey. As the number of students exceeds the number of teaching staff, the survey study will be longer. For this reason, we wanted to first present the results gained from the survey form applied to teaching staff. A total of 39 faculty members from 13 universities out of 20 universities which have students in the department of Geomatics engineering completed in full the survey forms developed as part of the study. The majority of the teaching staff thought that a sort of chaos was created because the names of the departments differed. They also believed that they mastered the subjects they teach. In addition, they perceived their teaching skills as sufficient, kept the course content up-to-date and found their overall attitude in the classroom to be positive. They thought that they followed the current curriculum and the scientific developments, that they had a good command of the subjects they teach, and that they used convenient assessment and evaluation techniques. The teaching staff considered that they did not avoid being in contact with the students and that they showed sympathy and affinity to them. They also believed that they prepared the exam questions in accordance with the course content. The results obtained from this study will become more meaningful when they are compared to the results from the survey to be conducted/that was conducted with the students.

Student mobility, provided through student exchange programs, is becoming one of the crucial elements of higher education institutions, especially in teacher training programs. The purpose of this study was to identify the reasons why Farabi exchange students chose to benefit from the program, the challenges faced by the students during the process and their suggestions regarding the exchange program and hence to evaluate the findings in terms of the purpose and functioning of the exchange program. In this qualitative research study, participants consisted of students who had taken advantage of the Farabi Exchange Program (n=5) and of students wishing to participate in the program (n=3) in various departments of a school of education. Data collected through a semi-structured interview form and a voice recorder were analyzed through descriptive and content analysis techniques. The findings demonstrated that the students benefited from the program due to two main factors: Domestic reasons (missing their families, financial facilities provided by the exchange program, and being in solidarity with the family members) and reasons related to the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS). It was also shown that the problems faced by students were due to the lack of an appropriate orientation program by Farabi offices, which strengthened the feeling of alienation among the students. The participants’ recommendations for the program were found to be pertinent to eliminating the problem about the lack of orientation.

Despite the changes made related to academic promotion and appointment over the years in Turkey, there have been two main criteria: academic publications after PhD and foreign language proficiency. It commonly known that faculty members come across several problems during the process of attaining the title of associate professorship and these problems affect the academic environment in several ways. The purpose of this study is to reveal the faculty members’ views on the academic promotion in postdoctoral process and provide further suggestions.. Data were gathered through a semi-structured interview form including 10 items prepared by the researcher and analyzed through content analysis. In addition, a criterion table comprised of 25 items was applied to the participants before the interview. These criteria were determined by the InteruniversityBoard of Turkey and other universities. 18 faculty members marked the criteria they consider essential. Participants consisted of faculty members from science, social and medical fields. Results of the study revealed that faculty members considered associate professorship exam and foreign language exam necessary. According to the faculty members, the criteria related to publishing international articles and lecturing at undergraduate and graduate levels were especially very important among all criteria and the current system had a determinant role in the faculty members’ behaviors and academic publications. Faculty members stated that foreign language exam did not measure language proficiency accurately ; academic positions were not assigned fairly; there were some problems about the quality of academic publications, ethics and being a scientist. Similarly, they clearly stated that the society did not rely on scientists. The results gained in the study corroborate the need to review the academic promotion and appointment process. An increase in the number of such studies that examine faculty members’ perceptions is recommended due to their potential for providing a basis for future.

For the purpose of providing a better quality of service for their students, higher education institutions develop both academic and social strategies that will meet students’ expectations, and they can monitor the performance of the related activities efficiently by integrating them into their strategic plans. Although students’ expectations from the institutions in which they are registered can be provided directly through feedback mechanisms, there is a need for a sustainable system through which students’ opinions on all of the services are gathered in a systematic way. In this regard, the objective of this study was to design an information system measuring the satisfaction level of the students about the services/ facilities provided by the university on a regular basis and reporting the results of the measurement to the university management in a certain format. In this descriptive research that was carried out within the scope of Dokuz Eylul University quality assessment, evaluation and assurance activities in higher education, an electronic form was developed which was integrated into the Dokuz Eylul University Information System. Through this form, particular questions were asked covering many service dimensions, i.e., infrastructure facilities, the provided services, educational and career development, approaches of the university towards the students, communication with students, attitudes of students towards the university, etc. The evaluations of students’ feedback were performed based on descriptive statistics, and an additional assessment scale was also generated to classify and order the overall satisfaction levels as primary priority to improve, secondary priority to improve, opportunities available, and the areas where the university is strong. This system helped to make decisions for the improvements in required fields, generated inputs to the strategic plan of Dokuz Eylul University for determining policies and goals to increase the quality of education, student satisfaction and provided a capability for performance evaluation in the achievement of these goals by systematic measurements.

The current study focuses on the relationship between organizational attraction perceptions and perceived individual-organization compatibility of university students toward the organizations they would like to work after university graduation. The participants consisted of 253 university students including 161 females and 92 males. Participant age ranged from 19 to 28 years (range = 9, = 21.26, SD = 1.619). Of the participants, 106 were juniors (41.9%), and 147 were senior year students (58.1%). The ‘Applicant Attraction Instrument’ of Rau and Hyland was used to measure the organizational attraction perceptions of the university students. Participants’ perceived individual-organization compatibility was assessed with the ‘Perceived Person-Organization Fit Instrument’ developed by Cable and DeRue. While the reliability of the scales used in the study was examined by the calculation of Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients, the validity was investigated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on LISREL software. Findings indicated a positive and moderate correlation between organizational attraction perceptions and perceived individual-organization compatibility among university students toward the organizations they would like to work after graduation (r = .615). Further, participants’ organizational attraction perceptions were found to explain 38% of the variance in their perceived individual-organization compatibility. Results suggested that stronger perceived organizational attraction of an aimed organization relates to greater perceived individual-organization compatibility for undergraduate students. The results of the study are discussed with the relevant theories and literature on the issues.

The Bologna Process at National Higher Education Programs initiated a series of studies regarding the assessment and evaluation of quality in higher education. Dokuz Eylül University has taken this initiation into a primary concern to develop a methodology for the measurement of quality in undergraduate education. Besides the existing systems on this subject at Dokuz Eylül University, substantial progress was recently made by developing innovative sub-systems aiming further improvements. As one of the most important stakeholders, the feedback from students about the quality of the courses was selected as the major concern and a Student Course Feedback System was developed for this purpose. As an exemplary case study, this reveals how the Student Course Feedback System was designed, the process, the technologies used, the problems and constraints encountered, and the roadmap that can be followed by other universities. Dokuz Eylül University has interiorized this process as a corporate culture by directing instructors to make improvements in the courses with respect to the outputs of the evaluation forms, including questions about learning outcomes, instructors, and physical conditions. The integrated design of the Student Course Feedback System with the existing information systems has enabled management to implement a course evaluation system comprising the trilogy of students, instructors, and courses as a whole. The existence of such an assessment process supports the principles of continuous improvement and helps to establish the factual decision making process as an important milestone on the roadmap for a living quality assurance system.

By investigating international students’ reasons for choosing higher education, this study attempts to reveal the factors influencing students’ tendency for international education with various descriptive statistics. The study is based on the scanning method. The international students studying at universities in Ankara in the academic year 2011-2012 were selected as the investigated population of this survey. A total of 545 students selected using the ‘appropriate sampling method’ from the research population constituted the sample of the research. The data were gathered through distributing a questionnaire composed of three different sections which was designed by the researcher. The data were first explained in terms of their frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Little research has been conducted on international students in Turkey. According to the findings of this study, The majority of the students studying in Turkey come from Turkish-speaking neighboring countries. The findings of the present study also reveal that there seems to be no systematic policy for attracting international students to Turkey. Students’ academic accomplishment has been negatively influenced by their low level of proficiency in the Turkish language. In addition, international students also suffer from difficulty in becoming accustomed to their social environment. According to the findings of the study, most international students have economic problems. Despite these problems, the majority of the international students in Turkey were satisfied with their education. In order to maintain the satisfaction of international students, adopting both long-term and short-term strategies and policies by government is recommended. Having a positive attitude towards Turkey can be considered as one of the reasons to select Turkey as a destination for higher education. In general, the findings of the study illustrated that international students selected Turkey mainly due to their cultural proximity, Turkey’s comparatively developed economy and access to high-quality higher education.

This study was conducted to investigate the data about the Bologna Process on the websites of universities’ undergraduate nursing programs in Turkey. In this descriptive study, all state and private universities which have BSc Nursing Programs and are within the scope of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey were included. Data were collected between May 1st and June 1st, 2015 by searching the websites of universities that were included in this study. An Evaluation Form that was developed by the researchers was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by using frequencies and percentages. We found that 77.2% of the universities included in the study were state universities and information about the Bologna Process could be found by using the website link on the main page in 65.3% of these universities. The majority of the universities (87.1%) had general information about their program but 44% did not take the European Credit Transfer System into consideration on compulsory lessons and 41% of them on elective lessons. It was found that the majority of essential nursing lessons held by eight departments in BSc of Nursing programs had an Information Package of Lessons (68.1%-77.6%) and that this package contained information on the European Credit Transfer System Credits in 72.3%-82.7% and calculations of student workload in 54.2%-65.6%. In conclusion, the universities with BSc Nursing Program did not have full information about the Bologna Process on their websites. We recommend making the necessary updates on these websites according to the standard format of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey to avoid giving inadequate and false information about the Bologna Process.

It is inevitable that educational systems will be impacted by the rapid and ongoing changes observed in every part of the society. Considering all the increased and changing responsibilities due to these changes, higher education systems need to find new methods for qualified education. One of the most important aspects of qualified education is qualified curriculum design. The core curriculum is one of the most appropriate curriculum designs when the objectives of higher education systems are considered. This study which mainly aimed to explain the core curriculum and analyze its application in the higher education context is a narrative review article. The study is structured under three titles: core curriculum in higher education and its basic features, the relation between core curriculum in higher education and general education, and core curriculum applications in higher education.

The aim of this study was to investigate the discourse markers used by 104 elementary-level prep class students studying at Namik Kemal University in Turkey. Students were required to write a paragraph with 80-100 words as part of their mid-term exam in the academic year of 2013-2014. A small-size corpus was constructed by using these writings. The corpus was analyzed via a software program called as AntConc 3.2.4. in order to find out the types and frequency of discourse markers. It was revealed that 180 discourse markers were used by elementary-level students: ‘and’ was used 98 times, but occurred 51 times, ‘because’ was written 18 times and other discourse markers of ‘then’, ‘so’, ‘also’, ‘too’ and ‘still’ were used 7, 2, 2, 1, 1 times respectively. Furthermore, according to Fraser’s (1999) taxonomy of discourse markers, 180 discourse markers were grouped into four categories. It was found out that 101 markers were elaborative markers, 52 were contrastive markers, 18 were causative markers and 9 were inferential markers.

The purpose of the study was to determine the goals of the rectors of the universities established after 2006 and to identify what they can do in line with these goals. We also aimed to uncover the entrepreneurial qualities of the rectors having an administrative duty in the university climate and to determine the status of scientists who will guide the future of Turkey. The study was conducted between October 2014 and October 2016 through interviews with 37 rectors, 29 of which belonged to a state university and 8 of which belonged to a foundation university, among the total of 70 rectors from nationwide universities founded in every region of Turkey since 2006. The results of the study indicated that the various goals and visions of rectors included becoming a world university that is innovative and entrepreneurial, constructing the institutional identity of the university, being visionary and open to change and motivating the employees and students. It is considered that new universities will have an important catalyst role in local, regional and national development with the right development strategies. This research is important since there is no other study on university rectors’ 2023 visions and goals and also due to the contributions of the strategies to be developed in line with the findings of this study for the entrepreneurial and innovative university indexes.

This study aimed to develop suggestions for the management of the Institute of Social Sciences on the effective execution of postgraduate education. A ‘mixed’ design was used. Data collection tools were applied directly to student population without the use of any sampling method. For advisors, criterion sampling was used.The participants of the study were composed of 207 postgraduate students registered at the Institute of Social Sciences and 39 instructors at Ege University. The student data were collected via the Supervisor Evaluation Scale and interview guide consisting of open-ended questions. The instructor data were collected during semi-structured focus group interviews. The participants stressed the informative, supportive and instructional roles of the institute for improving the quality of graduate education. In addition, differences as well as commonalities between the expectations of the students and those of the instructors were detected. The students’ expectations from the institute were the protection of students’ rights, mediation, ensuring the diversity of elective courses, the proper teaching of the courses in accordance with the nature of graduate education, and provision of information about career, time and stress management. Besides, the instructors’ expectations included attracting qualified candidates to programs, informing students, supporting the students with cadre and scholarship, reducing bureaucratic procedures, regulating the processes of supervisor selection and thesis proposal, providing access to resources during the processes of both course work and thesis writing, and forming colloquiums. The institute’s existing structure, authority distribution, staff and budget resources were found to be inadequate for increasing the quality of postgraduate education. Regarding the course and thesis stages, one third of the supervisors were evaluated as insufficient by the students. Many suggestions related to practice were made with respect to the findings.

The aim of this study is to shed light on the meaning of technology. The answer to the question of what role(s) technology has in developing a technological product will be addressed. Since Aristoteles, there are four main causes (causa materialis, causa formalis, causa finalis, and causa efficiens) in philosophy of one’s existence. In order to explain the relationship between these four causes that lead to one’s existence, the place of technology between the existing form and its material and the role of technology will be shown through the use of a simple formula suggested by the author. Along the same lines, the meaning of technology will be illuminated, as well. The relationship between the Turkish terms “meydana çikarmak” (bringing into appearance), “meydana getirmek” (bringing into existence), and “kesfetmek” (to discover) will be established in the light of the relationship between the Greek terms “aletheia” and “techne” (technique) both meaning “bringing into appearance” and the English term to “discover” (to unveil). The similarity between “meydana getirmek” and “meydana çikar(t)mak” with focus on the term “meydan” (arena) will be addressed. The convenience of the conceptual content of Turkish terminology for indulging in philosophy will also be highlighted. In addition Heidegger’s approach towards technology will be criticized. Lastly, how the meaning of technology is made explicit with the term “bringing into appearance” will be discussed.

The aim of this study was to analyze and evaluate the psychological adaptation problems of foreign students, who have come to Turkey to receive higher education at a state university, in terms of the variables of cultural distance perceptions, social support perceptions, acculturation attitudes, general state of health, self-efficacy beliefs and life satisfaction. Psychological adaptations of foreign students were examined within the framework of Berry’s (1997) theory of acculturation. The relational study model, one of the general study types, was used in the study. The population of the study consisted of foreign students who are studying at a state university. Since the study aims to reach the whole population, no sample was chosen for the study. The total number of foreign students was 146 in the 2014-2015 academic year. Psychological adaptations of the students were examined with the variables of age, acculturation attitudes, perceived social support, cultural distance, self-efficacy and duration of stay in Turkey. The quantitative data were analyzed via the SPSS 21 package software. The findings of the study showed that the answers that foreign students have given to the life satisfaction scale are at the level of “slightly agree” in both genders. The answers that they have given to the general health scale about how their health is now and has been recently in general are at the level of “less than usual”. The most important variable that predicts the psychological adaptations of students is acculturation attitudes. Among the acculturation attitudes, the students preferred the integration attitude. According to the results of the classification by geographical region, there are similarities in the categories of religious beliefs, family life, customs, world-views, social activities and standards of living of the foreign students. However, there are differences in the categories of clothing, mode of communication, values, and friendship, language, and food culture.