Education Policy

At Özyeğin University, we believe that an inclusive, safe and empowering environment is essential for the academic, social and personal development of each unique student. each student is a unique individual who needs an inclusive, safe and caring environment that supports student engagement and achievement in academics, co-curricular as well as extra-curricular activities for their scientific, intellectual, professional and social development. It is our desire to help students meet their fullest potential through the OzU transformational journey that is learner-centered and learning-oriented. We aim OzU graduates to be responsible world citizens who think consequentially and engage constructively, as empowering leaders and active team members when necessary. We believe that the university's role is to guide and provide institutionally streamlined student experience through sustainable learning communities, inclusive learner-centered support services, access to hands-on activities with direct constructive interaction between students and faculty. We encourage students to construct knowledge as they learn to find answers to their questions, discover for themselves and practice skills necessary to reach their goals.

Furthermore, one of our high hopes as a university that puts sustainability at the nexus of its research, teaching and service activities is to instill in our students the intrinsic motivation to address global challenges humanity faces, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. We believe there is a need for conscientious, dedicated and responsible individuals who are excited about promoting prosperity while protecting the planet.

In this context, we refer to the students’ lifecycle at OzU as their transformational journey/ Transformative Student Experience.

Learning and Teaching Capabilities Framework:
Transformative Learner Experience

OzU Transformative Learner Experience (TLE) is the name given to the whole learning ecosystem that OzU provides to its students in order to align their knowledge and skills with the world standards and to give them the ability to transform themselves by learning to learn. The process is structured and supervised with a student journey mapping which enables the learning experience to be continuously planned, monitored and improved and more , more importantly, updated according to the changing and developing goals of our students.

The core dimensions of OzU TLE that complement and reinforce the bachelor curriculum are:

Sectoral Knowledge & Skills: The bachelor curriculum at OzU provides scientific, technical knowledge, as well as hard and soft skills development that not only train students academically, but also prepare them for their roles as citizens and as professionals in society. To this end, academic curriculum is augmented with an innovative sectoral education program and applied multidisciplinary courses that strengthen the link between research orientation of the university and its commitment to providing learner-centered, applied education in a systematic, reasoned and coherent manner across the various faculties and throughout the student university journey.

Sectoral Education Program is a genuine and special part of the OzU curriculum, designed to prepare our students as academically, professionally, and socially resourceful graduates who add value to their professional and civic communities. The program consists of Sectoral Solution courses, where students are exposed to different sectors, areas of expertise and transdisciplinary thinking through a curriculum enriched with online resources, guest speakers, sectoral analyses, case studies, simulations and practicum projects. The program’s second component is the co-curricular mandatory internship for all undergraduate degree programs. The program also includes extra-curricular component where OzU students are encouraged to benefit from voluntary (non-credit) internship opportunities on-campus as well as off-campus in Turkey and abroad. Finally; a centralized Professional Development office with dedicated full-time advisors offers various group as well as individual supports designed specifically for every stage of the university lifecycle to help students progress towards their career goals and to take steps to achieve these goals. Meta Learning: Learning to learn, as students shape their learning paths is the key component of OzU TLE. This involves the students’ recognizing different opportunities for improvement, believing that they can successfully improve, and learning to effectively plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning strategies.

There are four specialized administrative aspects of this framework that are essential for its facilitation:

1. Digitalization of Education: Digital transformation of education environment/tools starting with the textbooks and assessments in common courses allow us to follow the situation for the topics and skills that students need support. It is followed in the Technopedagogical Education Framework prepared for learning, teaching, research and community-oriented activities in digital environments.
2. OzU Analytics: Tracking of learning and teaching experience through data analytics entail analysis of learning processes, analysis of course design and analysis of student success and engagement at the institutional level.
3. OzU First Year Advising: Professional advisors assist students during their freshman and sophomore years with developmental and proactive advising.
4. OzU Academic Advising: Academic advisors among the faculty members assigned to each student to provide support for various matters such as adaptation to university life, guidance in academic matters and career planning.
5. OzU Learning and Development: The findings from the above processes are evaluated and analyzed in order to implement improvements in the OzU Curriculum and student university lifecycle experience.