Sabancı University delegation visited Georgia State University (GSU) Robinson College of Business on 13-14 January, 2020. Both universities’ officials held meetings and defined possible areas of cooperation between the two universities. 

Under the leadership of Vice-President and Istanbul Policy Center Director Fuat Keyman, Sabancı University delegation consisting of Nihat Kasap, Dean of Sabancı Business School and Cüneyt Evirgen, Executive Director of Executive Development Unit (EDU), Unit visited Georgia State University (GSU) Robinson College of Business. 

The visit was hosted by GSU-CIBER the delegation met Richard Phillips, dean of Robinson College of Business and Jacobus Boers, Assistant Dean and defined possible areas of cooperation. Additionally, in the meeting with Wolfgang Schlör, Associate Provost for International Initiatives, provided information on student and faculty exchange programs. 

In a meeting with Tamer Çavuşgil, Sabancı University Board of Trustees Member, GSU Robinson College of Business Fuller Callaway Profesorial Chair and CIBER Executive Director, Çavuşgil provided information about the activities of the CIBER center. Sabancı University also met doctoral students in the center and discussed projects about Sabancı Business School. 

The visit also provided an opportunity to get together with Ahmet Bozer, member of the EDU Advisory Board and it was completed very productively for both organizations. 

Turkish Foreign Policy Evaluated with Businesspeople from Atlanta 

During the visit, Sabancı University Vice-President and Istanbul Policy Center Director Fuat Keyman got together with leading businesspeople from Atlanta and delivered a keynote speech on Turkish foreign policy. 

In the meeting hosted by Atlanta Council on International Relations, Fuat Keyman delivered a keynote speech on “Turkish Foreign Policy amid Regional Turmoil” and responded to questions after his speech which was very well received.  

Asst. Prof. Turgay Bayraktar, Faculty Member of the Mathematics Programme at our Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, has been awarded by TÜBA (Turkish Academy of Sciences) within the scope of TÜBA-GEBİP - Outstanding Young Scientist Award.

On December 30th, 2019, Asst. Prof. Turgay Bayraktar has received his award from the President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Industry and Technology Mr. Mustafa Varank and President of TÜBA Prof. Muzaffer Şeker during the ceremony held at the Presidential Complex.  

Since 2001, TÜBA-GEBİP Awards have been given to outstanding young scientists in the fields of nature, engineering, health sciences and social sciences to acknowledge and support continuation of their academic studies in Turkey, creation of their own research groups, to reward and encourage qualified projects and their international-level publications. GEBİP Award Winners will recieve an annual grant of 20.000 TL for three years.  As of November 2019, awardees will be “natural members” of Young Academy which is decided by the Council.

We would like to congratulate our esteemed faculty member for their outstanding achievement.

Sabancı University Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Member Meltem Muftuler-Bac and Beth Simmons, Andrea Mitchell Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania offered a joint course on International Borders in an Age of Anxiety for UPENN and Sabancı University students in Fall 2019. 

As part of course requirements, 18 UPenn students visited the Sabanci campus from January 4 to 13 for joint activities with Sabancı students.  The field research component of the course was carried out with multiple activities in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. First, students from UPENN and Sabancı University presented their joint studies and an international memo they have co-authored during the semester. 

January 7th ELAE result code explanations are as follows:

SL (Satisfactory in the ELAE): indicates students who have received the required grade or above in the January 7th ELAE and who have gained the right to start their faculty studies as Spring (irregular) Freshman in the 2019-2020 Spring Semester.

UL (Unsatisfactory in the ELAE): indicates students who have not been able to obtain the required grade in the ELAE.

NA (Non-attendance): indicates students who did not attend the exam and is equivalent to a “UL” grade.

Grade bands are as below:

Postgraduate candidates who have taken the January 7th ELAE will be informed of their results by their institues.

A Placement Exam will be given to inactive/prepared outside students who want to continue at FDY on the 10th of January at 10 a.m. They should contact the SL Directorate on the 9th of January (tomorrow) by 12 p.m. latest.

Please see the link for your ELAE results.

We wish you success in your studies,

The School of Languages Directorate

Sabancı University Business School has been selected as the member of Graduate Management Admission Council ™ (GMAC ™) which brings top business schools and education and training instutitons together from all around the world.

In order to become a GMAC member, candidate business schools are expected to be nominated by the committee, write a report on the activities of the school by actively cooperating with GMAC on various issues for approximately three years, submit a letter of reference from at least the dean / associate dean level of two GMAC member universities, and write separate reports on the profile and admission requirements of the school's programs.

Sabancı University Business School submitted a report on topics covering AACSB accreditation, international memberships and rankings; the programs it offers, its contributions as a GMAC member for the last three years; ethic and transparent education.

Sabancı Business School Dean Prof.Nihat Kasap said "We are pleased and proud to be the only university chosen as a member of GMAC and achieve our goals of membership on which we have been working for the last three years. This membership confirms the value of our university once again, while attesting to our quality of education in the globalizing world through actively sharing our experiences and opinions in line with GMAC's mission of providing the tools and information necessary for universities to explore and evaluate each other”.

IICEC 10th Annual Energy Conference featuring the World Energy Outlook 2019 Turkey Launch

Sabancı University Istanbul International Energy and Climate Center (IICEC), which brings together key stakeholders in energy and climate since its establishment in 2010, brought the energy World together at the 10th Annual IICEC Energy Conference.

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2019 report was launched for Turkey during the conference held in Istanbul on December 20, 2019. Senior public representatives, executives of global leading organizations in the national and international energy sector, and representatives of leading universities, policy centers and think tanks attended the conference, hosted by Güler Sabancı, Sabancı University Founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Prof. Carmine Difiglio, Sabancı University IICEC Director.

 Carmine Difiglio, Fatih Dönmez, Güler Sabancı, Fatih Birol, Yusuf Leblebici, Simone Kaslowski

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez, the honorary guest of the conference, made important statements about Turkey’s energy policies. “Turkey is a natural energy center with its two onshore and two FSRUs with underground storage facilities and various gas entry points.” said Minister Dönmez, during his opening remarks. Minister Dönmez stressed that the energy trading centers need risk assessment tools, and EXIST would improve these tools to market players in the near future. “Therefore, Turkey’s natural gas market will contribute to regional welfare with multi-players.” said Minister Dönmez.

Minister Dönmez highlighted the importance of increasing the number of sellers and buyers in a liberalized market and said, “We need to achieve a more developed market by attracting more sellers and buyers to be a real energy trading center, rather than being an energy transit country.” “We are currently working on a new tariff model for consumers who would like to buy electricity only from renewable resources.” said Fatih Dönmez, emphasizing their policy for promoting local and renewable sources. Highlighting the importance of transformation in the electricity market, he stressed that Turkey should build up an ecosystem for producing and exporting technology, rather than importing and using it.

“We are conducting the 10th Annual Energy Conference of IICEC, befitting its identity of ‘International Research Center’ in the 20th anniversary of the Sabancı University.” said Güler Sabancı, during her opening remarks. “We have achieved significant improvements for the future of our sector by the tripled installed capacity as an outcome of investments over $100 billion, promoting renewable energy by the YEKA model, strong increase in the share of domestic resources in electricity generation, and the level operational excellence and supply quality.” added Güler Sabancı, by emphasizing the crucial role of the Ministry of Energy and all regulatory and decision-making bodies in the strategic energy sector. “We are moving towards an energy ecosystem that is rapidly transforming with the effect of technology. But there is an unchanging element: Human. When we talk about energy in our country, we are talking about a broad ecosystem with over 500 thousand employees in public institutions, private sectors, NGOs, and universities. Therefore, our most important value for the future is our professional human resources. At this point, we attach great importance to public-industry-university cooperation in energy, like in many fields.

IICEC continues to work on this triple model. We can call this the “Success Triangle”. We will continue to focus on high value-added, information, and technology-intensive projects and collaborations in the upcoming period. We need to move our sector to a better future by using our human resources and technology more effectively in addition to our energy resources.” she added.

New Policy to Focus on Efficient Growth Simone Kaslowski, Chairman of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD), urged that Turkey’s new policy need to focus on efficient growth, in his speech at the 10th IICEC Conference. “Sustainability, efficiency, resource optimization, environmental compliance, strong infrastructures, and security of supply, have to be considered as our targets for the upcoming period. We would like to propose four main focal points in order to ensure the sustainability of existing investments in the sector and to provide a reliable investment environment for new investors: We must quickly eliminate factors that hinder predictability in line with the objectives of the Electricity Market Law and the 11th Development Plan. We need to adopt new tools for increasing competition in the market for improving the benefits of the consumers. And we need to increase predictability in the market.” said the head of Turkey’s biggest business association.

DR. BIROL CHAIRED THE TURKEY ENERGY BUSINESS LEADERS PANEL 

The 10th Annual IICEC Energy Conference concluded with a comprehensive panel discussion, moderated by IEA’s Executive Director and IICEC’s Honorary Board Chairman Dr. Fatih Birol.

Sinan Ak, CEO of Zorlu Energy, Ebru Dildar Edin, Deputy General Manager of Garanti BBVA, Ahmet Erdem, Country Chairman of Shell Turkey, Zaur Gahramanov, CEO of SOCAR Turkey, Ebru Özdemir, Chairperson of the Board of Limak Investment, and Kıvanç Zaimler, President of Energy Group of Sabancı Holding participated in the “Turkey Energy Business Leaders” Panel. The panelists highlighted the importance of liberalization in Turkey’s energy market for achieving financial sustainability while emphasizing the crucial role of predictability.

Our Annual Conference Series Become a Tradition The 10th Annual IICEC Energy Conference started with the welcoming speech of Dr. Mehmet Doğan Üçok, the Coordinator of IICEC. “IICEC is now organizing the 10^th Annual Energy Conference, and we are delighted and honored to be here with you. We have organized national and international conferences over the last decade, and we had an increasing synergy and a cumulative impact every year. Our annual conference series become a tradition.” said Dr. Üçok. 

IICEC TO LAUNCH FIRST-OF-A-KIND TURKEY ENERGY OUTLOOK IN SPRING 2020 

IICEC is preparing to launch Turkey Energy Outlook in the first half of next year, Prof. Carmine Difiglio, the Director of Sabancı University IICEC, revealed during his speech at the 10^th Annual IICEC Energy Conference.

Prof. Carmine Difiglio gave brief information about the methodology, perspective, and the content of the Turkey Energy Outlook, in his presentation. “We realized that we had to consider simultaneously a wide variety of drivers that push the energy market in the long term. Therefore, we have started with Turkey’s energy policy pillars, energy security, localization, and predictable markets.” said Prof. Difiglio.

Prof. Difiglio revealed that the Turkey Energy Outlook would have detailed information for each supply and end-user sectors while providing pathways to be more competitive, efficient, localized, and sustainable energy economy. “The report will conduct detailed analysis for outlining two scenarios, the Reference Scenario, and the Value Scenario.” he added.

The eighth semester of the Mercator – IPC Research Fellowship Program, initiated by Sabanci University Istanbul Policy Center in collaboration with Stiftung Mercator, has started. During the welcoming event held in Soho House Istanbul new researchers of the new period and their topics are introduced. 

The new researchers of the most important component of the Istanbul Policy Center- Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative, Mercator – IPC Research Fellowship Program, were introduced with a meeting.  Aiming to improve the academic, political and societal relations between Turkey and Germany, Turkey and Europe, IPC Fellowship Program held a welcoming event in Soho House Istanbul for the new period of the program.  While Fuat Keyman Vice President of Sabancı University and IPC Director and Michael Schwarz, Director of Stiftung Mercator have made the opening speech; the event continued with the speeches of Senem Aydın-Düzgit, IPC Research and Academic Affairs Coordinator and Mercator-IPC Senior Scholars Atila Eralp, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Michael Thumann.  

"Scorecard for Eight Years: Strong and Consolidated Ties between Germany and Turkey"

Speaking at the opening of the event, Vice President of Sabancı University and IPC Director Fuat Keyman stated that this is the eighth year of the program and the program welcomed 51 researchers and 14 senior scholars, hosted more than 250 panels in Turkey and abroad, conference, that they organized events such as book introduction; and said they are cooperating with more than 30 national and international organizations. Keyman stated that they have published more than 100 global publications within IPC, they have prepared and published hundreds of columns, academic articles and presentations in different channels, and they have held four meetings in Istanbul within the scope of its alumni network. 

Emphasizing that IPM operating under the roof of Sabancı University is represented in the last COP (International Climate Change) Conferences in Warsaw, Lima, Paris and Bonn and it is considered as a significant connection point by Turkish academicians and media,  Keyman continued his words as follows, 

“When our IPC was established eight years ago, our vision, we determined our vision as academic meticulousness, creativity, interest, teamwork and friendship. In terms of the relationship between Turkey and European Union-Germany, our goal is to create a new driving force to increase the partnership in this field.   We stressed in our projects the role European Union in the democratization and the political transformation in Turkey. We also focused on the modernization of the customs union and refugee problems. Until now, we have examined our studies within the context of the situation of Syrians coming to Turkey and the policies determined for them.

In terms of climate change, we have become a center in Turkey with the activities that we organize and support in order to create network, recommend policies and create public awareness. Low-carbon building, regional role of Turkey in energy policies and coal policies were also included in our projects."

While finishing his speech Keyman, thanked the Güler Sabancı, Chairman of the Board of Trustees,  Yusuf Leblebici, Rector and Senior Advisor Kemal Derviş for their support and trust in IPC and Rudiger Frohn, Michael Schwarz, Anne Duncker  and Jannes Tessman from Stiftung Mercator for their cooperation.

Michael Schwarz: “People Make a Difference. IPC made a difference”

Speaking at the meeting, Stiftung Mercator Director Michael Schwarz stated that many things have changed since the establishment of IPC – Sabancı University - Stiftung Mercator Initiative and continued his words as follows: "We had the opportunity to express different views and the chance to strengthen the same views. IPC is a very good example of how people can make a difference.” 

Mercator-IPM Researchers of 2019/20 will continue to work in a wide range covering EU-Germany relationships and Climate Change such as Turkey's geopolitical role through Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in Europe-Asia Connection; the inclusion of the Syrians in the labor market of Turkey; the roles of non-governmental organizations in Turkey and Germany in inclusive education practices; management of urban water demand in Istanbul and Berlin and the role of energy cooperatives in democratic energy transformation. 

At the end of the meeting, a video including the summary of this year's topics and researchers, Andrea Weiss, Ellen Kollender, Gokce Uysal, Akgun Ilhan and Sinan Erensu 'was aired.  

Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC) has released the seventh issue of IICEC Energy Market Newsletter. 

Please click to read IICEC Energy Market Newsletter.

SU Gender, in collaboration with Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Women’s Studies Research Center, hosted the feminist writer, theorist and professor Cynthia Enloe from Clark University, an internationally renowned academician for her work on gender and militarism as well as for her significant contributions to the field of feminist international relations. In her talk she gave at Karakoy Minerva Palas, Enloe said, “Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.”

Sabancı University Gender and Women Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) continues to invite new people working on the issues of gender. This time, in collaboration with Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Women’s Studies Research Center, SU Gender hosted the feminist writer, theorist and professor Cynthia Enloe from Clark University, an internationally renowned academician for her work on gender and militarism as well as for her significant contributions to the field of feminist international relations. In her talk she gave at Karaköy Minerva Palas, Enloe referred to Charlotte Bunch’s famous saying, “Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.”

Enloe, being a research professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE), addressed to the 30-year period paving up the way to the  #MeToo campaign that recently became viral in the world and shared the journey of how women have attained the current legislative regulations pursuant to sexual harassment in decades.

When American actress Alyssa Milano on 15 October 2017 first tweeted in her social media account “If you have been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet”, she launched “MeToo” movement that gave voice to women’s exposure to flirt violence, harassment or sexual assault and turned into a global reaction being a trend topic on twitter for 100 days.

Tens of thousands of women and men revealed to the world their sexual harassment and rape stories which they have never shared even with their closest circle before with the hashtag “MeToo”.

This tweet has been retweeted or liked thousands of times and received over 40.000 replies. #MeToo campaign was launched to prove how prevalent sexual harassment was and what kind of a risk it posed for women in all workplaces including Hollywood.  Some of the celebrities who supported to the campaign included Lady Gaga, Debra Messing, Anna Paquin and Evan Rachel Wood. In the meantime, the results of the movement have become a topic for academic discussion.

Milestones of Women’s Movement are Important!

Professor Enloe summarized the 30-year history of international feminist struggle for women’s rights paving up the way to  #MeToo movement and shared the journey of how women have attained the current legislative regulations pursuant to sexual harassment in decades as well as in terms of significant achievements as follows:

1969: The first women’s studies program. Enloe emphasized the importance of this year for women as the first women’s studies program was started in the University of California San Diego. She said, “It was a serious intellectual collective project to make sense of the world by taking women seriously. By 1976, we offered the first courses. These are the most important dates in the history of human-kind, but they are also interesting to position ourselves today.”

1979: Enloe, also referring to the United Nations General Assembly meeting, said, “The passage of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was 34 years after the founding of the United Nations. USA and Sudan did not ratify the convention. The second important topic is the naming of sexual harassment: for the first time in print an intellectual journal in public form referred to sexual harassment.  Sexual harassment is a pattern of violence against women. If you can’t name something, it is really hard to challenge it.

1987 Women’s March Against Battering. Women were out in the streets in those times. “I learned that a women’s march against violence in 1987 took place in Istanbul, at Yoğurtçu Park.”

1991: A young African-American woman Anita Hill who was sexually harassed by Supreme Court candidate Clarence Thomas told her harassment story at the US Senate. This has brought sexual harassment to a new public attention. There were two cases similar to this in the politics. Nobody believed the words of an African-American woman.

1993: Enloe expressed her witnessing to the incredible success of transnational feminist activists who attended the UN Conference on Human Rights held at Vienna to end violations of women’s human rights. She said, “Human rights have to be understood through a gender-frame. Violence against women should be included as one of the major violations of human rights. Domestic violence, wartime systematic rape… Are all of them violations of human rights? These were the topics discussed and transnational feminist activists came to Vienna to insist on inclusion of such matters.”

1994: Enloe, referring to a hearing in Arusha Court held by United Nations Security Council for prosecutions of Ruanda Genocide, expressed that for the first time in the history of humankind, a man was convicted for an autonomous charge of wartime rape. She mentioned, “He was convicted for war crime of rape because of his radio strips. Besides, at the time, in the criminal court held in Lahey for Yugoslavian war crimes, it was being attempted to pass the law on rape as a war crime.”

1998: Enloe, stating that Rome Statute is the founding document of International Crimes Court (ICC) decreed in United Nations Conference, highlighted, “When the governments in Rome came together, they were not just creating ICC, they were also creating the terms of ICC. They were creating the fine print about what is prosecutable. They were creating definitions of what a war crime is.”