Ankara University

http://www.ankara.edu.tr/english/index.php

Ankara University was founded by Atatürk himself in order to set foundation for his teachings and revolutions on which those would get stronger and spread wider, and for those principles that are the expressions of a modern society, science and enlightenment are hold dear and protected. The first and most impressive performance of the young Republic in the field of higher education was to establish the following higher education institutions: School of Law, to train judiciary who were to realize the new order of law in the secular and democratic Republic ( 1925); Institute of Technology for Agriculture, to lead the modernization of Turkish agriculture (1933); School of Language, History and Geography, to establish a bridge of language and culture between Turkey and the rest of the world and to conduct research on the rich culture of Anatolia (1935); and School of Political Science, which had been training top level public administrators under the name of Mektebi Mülkiye since 1859, and which was later on moved to Ankara in 1936 upon the directive of Atatürk.We should also mention the schools of which the preparation stage was started by Atatürk, yet the establishment postponed until the beginning of 1940’s due to Second World War. Among those schools, was Schools of Medicine and Science. Ankara University comprising Faculty of Law (1925), Faculty of Language, History and Geography (1935), Faculty of Science (1943), and Faculty of Medicine (1945) was established officially in 1946. The University acquired the Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine previously belonged to the Institute of Technology for Agriculture in 1948. School of Divinity was founded in 1949; Faculty of Political Sciences in 1950, then came the School of Pharmacy in 1960, and in 1963 School of Dentistry which later became a faculty in 1977, Faculty of Educational Sciences in 1965, and Faculty of Communication in 1965. Çankırı Faculty of Forestry and Health Education Faculties were opened to education in 1996. Today Ankara University is a highly esteemed university with its 15 Faculties, 7 Graduate Schools, 12 schools, and 25 research centers. There is currently 3720 highly qualified academic staff working at Ankara University. Of this figure 978 are professors, 325 are associate professors and 393 are assistant professors. There are 4603 vocational, 33516 undergraduate and 6707 graduate students receiving education at the University with a total number enrolled, 44906.

Ankara University has been the parent University for Several Universities which reached top quality education today. There are more than 2800 graduates of Ankara University, who work as academic staff at different universities all over Turkey. The University conducts superior quality research and offers education and training in every scientific area including Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Science, and Agriculture, and in almost every social science area. We provide quality health services to tens of thousands of people through our health clinics and hospitals, with a bed capacity of more than 2500.

At the University, language of teaching is Turkish, yet we also know that being fluent at least in one foreign language is essential for our students. With this idea in mind, we have made available the foreign language preparatory schools. Attendance is compulsory at the foreign language programs of Faculty of Letters, Divinity, Medicine, Engineering and School of Physical Education and Sports. We now also have prep schools, offering intensive foreign language courses in Agriculture, Communication, Veterinary Medicine, Law and Science Faculties.

Ankara University TOMER (Turkish Language Teaching, Research and Implementation Center), with it’s across the country branches, is providing language education to more than 20000 people in 20 different languages per year. These services are not only used by Turkish people but also by foreigners. Parallel with the western oriented social and economic policies that are in place in Turkey, the demand for foreign language courses from the business world is increasing. As the nations prepare themselves for 2000s, developed countries, in particular, are competing to establish a monopoly in science and technology to increase their market share. In this race, the most valuable resource we have is our youth. Aware of this fact, our University aims to catch up with the process of change in the world, in its education and research activities. The most ordained mission of the University is to train our youth with having the following virtues: faithful to the Atatürk"s teachings and secular order of the country with well developed ability to think, perceive, question, find solutions to problems, and undertake responsibilities; open minded, appreciative of authentic culture and traditional values, highly skilled and qualified. As a result of specific conditions brought about by its historical development, and like in many other well established older universities of big cities, Ankara University too carries out its activities in a multi campus system.

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