BAU Academic Year Opening Ceremony Held

At Bahçeşehir University (BAU), which returned to in-person education after a year and a half of distance education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first opening lecture was delivered by Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün, Chair of the Board and General Manager of ASELSAN.

According to a statement from the University, the academic ceremony, held at the Bahçeşehir University South Campus in accordance with pandemic conditions, was attended by Görgün as well as BAU Chair of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel, BAU President Prof. Dr. Şirin Karadeniz, academics and students.

Quoted in the statement, Prof. Dr. Görgün stated that Bahçeşehir University could be one of the universities in the world's top 100 in many indexes, and said:

"The University's doctoral programs are exciting. I have seen that the position Bahçeşehir Uğur Educational Institutions has reached today is in line with the change, transformation management and strategy that ASELSAN has been trying to implement over the last 3 years. We are currently a technology company that can be called the backbone of the Turkish defense industry. Our employees are very valuable to us. During the pandemic, we signed international export contracts worth 500 million dollars. It is necessary to understand that people are always at the center of change and transformation. It is not easy, especially, to keep valuable people within a focus.

Believing that, rather than throwing entrenched problems in front of young generations, we must move forward by nurturing them with somewhat more exciting opportunities, we encouraged them to take responsibility in areas described as disruptive technologies, such as big data, advanced analytics, space technology and nanotechnology. But we are aware that these disruptive technologies we talk about for young people may perhaps change this paradigm. The work done in this field, the effort invested in these areas, and our minds that can see the details in these areas may change the conventional approach. What we expect from young people is to lead."

Referring to the success of Bahçeşehir Uğur Educational Institutions at Teknofest, Görgün said that Bahçeşehir University and its schools were very successful again this year. Görgün said:

"They won 13 awards in both university and high school categories. I would like to express that we expect our young people to embrace our vision, goals and values and carry the flag they have taken over to much better places, and that we expect them to represent our country strongly with their national and international achievements. What we expect from young people is to lead these efforts. I would like to remind them that they should have a vision of renewing rather than repeating, never give up on change, enrich themselves rather than the life they live, and that leadership is first and foremost an inner journey."

"We Entered the Top 800–1,000 Band in the Times Higher Education World Rankings"

BAU President Prof. Dr. Şirin Karadeniz said that they had missed the students very much and were excited and happy to see them at school after a year and a half.

Stating that they had constantly followed the Scientific Advisory Board, the decisions of the authorities and developments around the world since the very beginning of the pandemic, Karadeniz made the following remarks:

"Under the leadership of our Faculty of Medicine and with the support of our Faculty of Health Sciences, we also established a scientific board. All the measures and decisions we took were taken together with our scientific board. There are 2 vaccination points within our University, one at the entrance area and one in the garden. We have also opened this service to the public. I would like to state that we have encouraged both our students and our faculty members to get vaccinated on a voluntary basis. In addition, we were the first university to switch to online education during the pandemic. During this process, we both invested in the quality of online education and developed the quality standards of the hybrid education model.

For our upcoming periods, we are moving to a higher model in education and, by combining the hybrid model with flexible learning methods, we are implementing a more flexible teaching and learning approach under the name 'Flexi BAU'. In our University's first year, our Chair of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Enver Yücel, set a goal: to enter the top 500 universities. We are making intense efforts toward this goal. This year we received very good news: we entered the top 800–1,000 band in the Times Higher Education rankings. I would also like to state that we will continue all our work and innovations with a strong team, without slowing down."

"We Started Implementing Distance Education 20 Years Ago"

BAU Chair of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel also referred to the University's vision in online education and said:

"We are a university that continued its classes online, and did so very quickly. We have relationships with the world. In our talks with Harvard, Oxford and Johns Hopkins universities, they had not yet started distance teaching even 6–7 months after the pandemic began. During the pandemic, we pioneered distance education in the world smoothly and excellently. Digital education is part of our culture. Twenty years ago, we made the headlines of one of Türkiye's major newspapers with the title 'Distance Education from Istanbul to the Village'.

I had built a primary school in my hometown. We taught classes there remotely from here. As sectors change and the world changes, education must change first and take the lead. Our University continues to develop. We have not given up on our goal of being among the top 500 universities. I am also happy to see that, at the point we have reached this year, we are steadily moving toward the number we desire. Going one step further from here is harder than getting here. We are striving to make all the necessary investments for this."