Sabancı University Ranks 14th

Times Higher Education (THE) revealed the list of The World's Best Small Universities 2017 compiled among entrants of the 2016-2017 World University Rankings which teach in at least 4 of the fields of arts and humanities, medicine and health, engineering and technology, natural sciences, life sciences, and social sciences, and have fewer than five thousand students. Accordingly, Sabancı University was 14th among the top 20 universities with fewer than five thousand students enrolled.

Commenting on the THE ranking, Sabancı University Acting President Ayşe Kadıoğlu said: "We at Sabancı University created a genuinely welcoming environment that is also conducive to research and teaching with only 17.5 students per faculty member. We are delighted to have ranked 14th on this list, keeping up the success we enjoyed last year."

Regarding the rankings, Times Higher Education Editor-in-Chief Phil Baty said: "Institutions must have high levels of student satisfaction and student-faculty interaction to be included among the world's best small universities. Low classpopulations and a low number of students per faculty member create a warm and welcoming university environment. In small universities, students feel like part of a community."

The list includes 20 universities worldwide.  Ranking first was the California Institute of Technology, second and fourth were École Normale Supérieure and École Polytechnique, third was the Pohang University of Science and Technology from South Korea, and fifth was Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in Italy.

The list includes 4 universities in the US, 3 universities each in Italy and France, and two universities from Turkey: Koç University (11th) and Sabancı University (14th).

Other universities in the list are in South Korea, India, Sweden, Belgium, Cyprus, Japan, Australia and Switzerland.

The Sabancı University Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) established with the founding sponsorship of Akbank hosted a lecture by Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Unit Head and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Josh Lerner on "The Future of Venture Capital and Private Equity."

The Sabancı University Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) established with the founding sponsorship of Akbank to achieve excellence in finance hosted a lecture by Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Unit Head and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Josh Lerner at the Sabancı Center on Tuesday, February 28, 2017.

In his lecture titled "The Future of Venture Capital and Private Equity", Lerner discussed the development of venture capital and private equity over the years, and the current situation. Lerner said that venture capital and private equity did not exist as concepts in the early 1980, and grew exponentially in the last decade. Lerner reminded listeners of the 1987 crash, when the market collapse brought down a number of companies as well. He said that while people were worried that the same thing would happen in the 2008 crash, that crisis proved to be less destructive than the first one. He argued that the reason the 2008 crash was less devastating was the printing of money by central banks. According to Lerner, this helped many agreements survive, and even improve. Josh Lerner said that the venture capital model was disrupted five years ago and a dramatic improvement was achieved.

Lerner's lecture discussed three key points: Where money came from; the rebellion among private equity groups; and the private equity subset, or the private equity model in developing countries.

Josh Lerner said that the investors of private equity funds were seeking ways for direct investment due to the high management costs of funds. They preferred parallel or solo investments rather than investing through a fund. Lerner said, "Direct investment performance was high in the 1990s, but many more people started doing it by the 2000s and performance declined."

Lerner also stated that although co-investments were expected to be better, they failed due to poor timing. He added that solo investments usually remained local. Speaking on the subject of governance, Josh Lerner made the following remarks:

• Historically, the performance of the highest-tier executives exceeds that of the lower tier.
• People who have had a previous success have a repeat success rate of 50%:
• There are deviations in venture capital investments and equity disclosures.
• As the money grows, shareholders become more dispersed.
• Specialized companies are usually more successful than generalized companies.
• The founding generation keeps the economics of a company in its grasp and does not delegate it to the next generation.
• As young and high-performing individuals, the largest segment in the economy, are estranged, decline becomes inevitable.

Discussing issues in developing markets, Josh Lerner said, "Asian economies have achieved the highest growth in 35 years. A regression will begin in the next 10 years." Lerner said that while the middle class would remain stagnant in the US and Europe, people in developing countries had high aspirations. Emphasizing the profitability of emerging markets, Lerner said that they offered a good business environment.

About Josh Lerner:

Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, and head of the Entrepreneurial Management unit. He graduated from Yale College with a special divisional major that combined physics with the history of technology, and worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy at the Brookings Institution. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard's Economics Department.  Much of his research focuses on venture capital and private equity organizations.  He also examines policies on innovation and how they impact firm strategies. He teaches a doctoral course on entrepreneurship, and graduate courses on venture capital and private equity.  Among other recognitions, he is the winner of the Swedish government’s Global Entrepreneurship Research Award.

Tosun Hoca, the breeze behind the wings of the Sabancı community 

Sabancı University Founding President Tosun Terzioğlu was remembered on the first anniversary of his passing in a ceremony attended by the Sabancı community, alumni, students, faculty and administrative members as well as his wife Nuran Terzioğlu, daughter Ayşecan Terzioğlu, Sabancı University Founding Secretary General Hüsnü Paçacıoğlu, Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum Director Dr. Nazan Ölçer and founding director Fatih Ertimur.

First to speak in the remembrance ceremony was Acting President Ayşe Kadıoğlu. Kadıoğlu said that everyone had memories with Founding President Tosun Terzioğlu all around the campus, and continued:

“Tosun Terzioğlu was greatly influential in the building of the University culture and fundamental principles as our Founding President.  The culture was shaped by his personality traits such as humility, ability to listen, and aversion to non-constructive behavior and hierarchy. The importance of academic freedoms enshrined in the Sabancı University institutional culture is exemplary in the history of universities in Turkey. Tosun Hoca played a great role in that. Tosun Hoca was a dedicated supporter of faculty members who chose to be public intellectuals and wrote for audiences beyond the academic. While he valued academic excellence above all, he also appreciated the intellectual's role as a public figure. He was a role model of this attitude. His life is proof that an excellent scientist can also reach out to the society and nature. He worked on every aspect of education in Turkey and wrote articles that are now reference pieces to share his constructive views with everyone at significant political turning points.  He stood with unwavering courage to protect the unique organization of our university. Thanks to his courage and dedication, we not only preserved our differentiating aspects, such as being the first university in Turkey to admit students to faculties rather than departments, but also paved the way for other universities to adopt a similar approach. Another great example of his courage happened in 2005, for a conference that was a turning point for Turkey, when he stood behind academics who voiced the importance of understanding the history of this country to avoid repeating its mistakes, went to great efforts to ensure that the conference was indeed held, and did not hesitate to make a speech during the opening. As an academic who has had the privilege of listening to that speech, I remember that he had said 'We are crossing a threshold.' He had emphasized that no harm could come of listening and speaking to each other with the words, 'You will see that those on the other side of the threshold aren't the monsters you thought them to be.'"

Ayşe Kadıoğlu said that the Sabancı community had countless memories with Tosun Terzioğlu –some enlightening, some empowering, and some funny– and concluded, "In my eyes, Tosun Hoca was the breeze behind the wings of the Sabancı community."

Speaking next, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Ayşecan Terzioğlu said that being with the Sabancı University community in remembrance of her father was a touching moment, and that the extended family of distinguished individuals honored his memory well. Ayşecan Terzioğlu also spoke of her father's excitement to build an environment where hierarchy was discarded during the foundational years of Sabancı University.

Information was provided about the institutional efforts of Sabancı University to immortalize Tosun Terzioğlu.

Sabancı University Alumni Association President Zeynep Bahar Çelik spoke about the “Tosun Terzioğlu Scholarship Fund" established in the days after Terzioğlu's passing and growing steadily with donations by the alumni.

The two other initiatives approved by the Board of Trustees are the “Tosun Terzioğlu Mathematics Chair” and a “Tosun Terzioğlu Garden” on campus.

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Dean Yusuf Menceloğlu provided information about the "Tosun Terzioğlu Mathematics Chair".

Tosun Terzioğlu Garden

According to Secretary General Haluk Bal, the Tosun Terzioğlu Garden will be built on a 2500 m2 plot next to the Information Center. Some of his favorite trees and shrubs will be planted in the garden, which will be designed with flowing water and natural materials to have spaces for resting, solitary rumination, or friendly conversations. The garden will be designed and built by Kartepe Peyzaj, known for their dedicated work on campus since the foundation of the university.   

Quoting an article edited by Nesrin Balkan in GazeteSU, Secretary General Haluk Bal and Acting President Ayşe Kadıoğlu said:

"Tosun Hoca uses the tree as a metaphor for 'standing on one's own feet' and says: 'Each tree is different. Once its root finds water, on it grows.' But it is important that the root finds the water. When it does, there is no more need to water the tree, and Tosun Hoca believes this is a metaphor for the growing of humans and standing on one's own feet. On 'learning being mutual' Tosun Hoca says: 'Good institutions learn from each and every student, and develop and improve accordingly.' 

He continues:

 '...education institutions are like olive trees - you know they live long. A tree may be a century old, yet if it has been pruned and groomed correctly, it appears no less healthy than a twenty-year-old tree. Education institutions are like trees, of course. Regardless of how well-built they are, they must always keep an eye out for the outside world, look carefully into themselves, and seek to do everything in new and better ways.' Then he talks about the trees on campus (the sakuras among them), how they talked with university employees and faculty when making decisions about the campus, and says that the campus is 'a garden that I helped build.' When he was told about the concern that students could break the branches of fruit trees when they try to pick fruit that isn't yet ripe, Tosun Hoca responded:  'Let them break it. When I was a child, I was crazy for unripe plums. It's a different pleasure altogether. In the future, they will realize that the tree will give them better apricots if they take care of it.' 

He trusted people to find the right way when left to themselves to a certain extent. This is a precious quality for an educator.

His words and thoughts will continue to expand our horizon.” 

In the closing remarks for the Tosun Terzioğlu memorial ceremony, Acting President Ayşe Kadıoğlu said: "Happiness and creating our own pathways to success was we define it were important to Tosun Hoca. In my view, so would be this garden. It will become a haven for the Sabancı University community to be at peace, listen to their inner selves, and talk to one another." 

At the end of the ceremony, books and writings containing thoughts by Tosun Terzioğlu were given to participants as mementos. One was his policy note on higher education coauthored by Üstün Ergüder, Mehmet Şahin and Öktem Vardar and published by the Istanbul Policy Center. The others were his book "Dünyaya Çoklu Bakmak: Atatürk ve Bugün” and the most recent publication about him, an interview with Tosun Terzioğlu written by one of our faculty members, Deniz Kurtoğlu Eken. Copies of his foreword titled "Our Differences and Riches" to the book Ebru edited by Ayşe Gül Altınay were also distributed.

We remember Tosun Terzioğlu: a good and kind man...

Nesrin Balkan

Our university's Founding President Tosun Terzioğlu passed away on this day a year ago. Tosun Bey became the first President of Sabancı University in 1997, when the foundation was being laid. He held this office for 12 years. He played a leadership role and put great effort into creating the education system at Sabancı University, building the department-free and interdisciplinary structure and establishing the differences of Sabancı University, such as the declaration of academic freedoms.  

Him walking in unhurried, silent steps all around the campus was a common sight for the Sabancı community. His humble leadership, excellent listening skills, and finding the lighter side of even the most somber setting are what I remember first about him. I had the chance to work with him for 17 years and my job required me to be beside him in hundreds of interviews and statements. As he often said in his interviews, his great objective was to raise and develop students into free-thinking, inquisitive, questioning individuals who have the ability to stand on their own feet, and the Sabancı University system was shaped accordingly. He always said that curiosity, questions, education and learning were mutual, that professors could learn just as much from their students, and that confining minds to preconceptions and stereotypes would obstruct the advancement of humanity.

We all know and have seen how much Tosun Bey loved trees, flowers and plants, and how he liked to work with the soil. Since Tosun Bey was closely involved in the landscaping of the campus once the construction was completed in 1999, and decided which tree or shrub would be planted where, he knew almost all the species on campus by heart, all the way to their Latin names.  His love and labor becomes manifest in every tree, plant and flower on campus.    He held campus tours for new students and interested employees every year, talking about the campus flora and fauna. Since he had helped to transform an initial wasteland into the lush and verdant green with thousands of trees and shrubs today, he was happy and proud to do these tours.  

Tosun Bey discusses his love of earth, gardens and plants in the book ‘Bir Dünya İnsanı Tosun Terzioğlu’ edited by Deniz Kurtoğlu Eken and printed by Istanbul Bilgi University Press in November 2015: "...trees, shrubs, annual or perennial flowers... They are all like friends to man. Acquaintances, maybe. They know what happened to you. Some of what happens to them could be due to our mistakes."  Tosun Bey finds similarities between trees and institutions of education, and says, "Education institutions are like olive trees - you know they live long. They can even live without being cared for. In that case they don't bear much fruit and become more prone to disease, but well-maintained olive trees have great swaths of shade below them. Up top, they have smaller but very healthy branches. Branches that are covered in olives. That is because of what they call rejuvenation. A young shoot is allowed to grow on an old and strong trunk. A tree may be a century old, yet if it has been pruned and groomed correctly, it appears no less healthy than a twenty-year-old tree. Education institutions are like trees. Regardless of how well-built they are, they must always keep an eye out for the outside world, look carefully into themselves, and seek to do everything in new and better ways. If an education institution says 'I am now perfect and there is nothing more I can do', they will quickly fall from that position, perhaps in four or five years in our times. This is inevitable.  Good institutions learn from each and every student, and develop and improve accordingly."

The Sabancı University campus will soon have a “Tosun Terzioğlu Garden” where students, employees and the whole Sabancı University community will be able to take a stroll, sit beneath a shade tree and read, engage in conversation, or become absorbed in thoughts or dreams. And Tosun Bey will be with us all along. 

The hero of It's a Wonderful Life

Film fans will remember "It's a Wonderful Life." It is still shown in old movie channels.  The 1946 film directed by Frank Capra is about a businessman, played by James Stewart, and how the world would look like if he had never lived.  The businessman then realizes that he did a lot to change the world without ever realizing, and decides that he has indeed lived "a wonderful life." I have been thinking about this film ever since Tosun Bey departed this world, and I feel like Tosun Bey is that character. Had Tosun Terzioğlu never lived, what would the world look like?  How would all the people –friends, employees, colleagues, family, Sabancı University– he touched in one way or another fare, and what would happen to all those trees and flowers he planted? 

That's how life is; if people do good deeds during their time in this world and touch other people's lives, they live forever; their deeds live on and they are always remembered in goodness and kindness. Tosun Bey has left his impression on every part of the campus and will continue to be remembered: On the campus lawn, in the laughter of a student, in the smell of a flower, in the achievements of a graduate, in the cafeteria or halls or laboratories or the Performing Arts Center... 

Tosun Bey ends his foreword to the book Bir Dünya İnsanı Tosun Terzioğlu thus: "I have met people of various nations throughout the years. I tried to listen to everyone I met, to understand and learn from them. I'm not sure if I deserve to be called 'A Man of the World' but I can say that I've always striven to be a good man."

The good and kind Tosun Terzioğlu will be forever remembered with gratitude and respect for what he has brought to our lives.

Sabancı University and SAS brought data scientists from various industries and levels of expertise together at the Data Scientist Meetup event held on February 17.

Aiming to provide a medium for exchanging information and ideas on the present and future of data science, the Data Scientist Meetup event was held on Friday, February 17, 2017 at Karaköy Minerva Palas. Speakers of the event were Hepsiburada.com Chief Data Scientist İsmail Parsa, Sabancı University Big Data Behavioral Analysis and Visualization Laboratory Director Professor Burçin Bozkaya, and SAS Analytics Consultant Tuba İslam. The event provided a medium for exchanging information and ideas on the present and future of data science, and networking with the people in the industry.

The first speaker of the event was Hepsiburada.com Chief Data Scientist İsmail Parsa, who shared his extensive experience in Amazon, Microsoft and other leading companies of the world. İsmail Parsa advised participants to complete a graduate degree after gaining a year or two of experience. Parsa discussed the importance of working on both the client and consultant sides, and the ability to look at things from a wider perspective. Emphasizing the importance of customer segmentation and stages that make a difference in modeling, Parsa said, "Your impact will be limited if you can't measure the success of your model."

Burçin Bozkaya introduced the Big Data Behavioral Analysis and Visualization Laboratory founded by Sabancı University in association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the analytics sponsorship of SAS. Bozkaya explained that one of the key purposes of the Laboratory were to support the industry with research undertaken by the university. Bozkaya said that they approached subjects from both engineering and business perspectives, achieving a success rate of 95% and above in forecasts.

Burçin Bozkaya advised participants: “It should be second nature to you to perform all sorts of analyses on data, and you should feel enthusiastic about it. You should be keenly interested in computers and programming. It is very difficult to progress in this job without a foundation in statistics. Your attitude to business problems also matters. Big data should be used in a way to add value."

Tuba İslam said that SAS has been and will be providing support to many initiatives on data science in Turkey and worldwide. Tuba İslam continued, “Many young people from diverse backgrounds seek careers in data science. We are delighted by this. As SAS, we will continue to invest in and support this field of work."

Sabancı University became the Turkish implementer of CEBRABRIC (Centre for Europe-Brazil business innovation cooperation) initiated as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 Program with the involvement of 12 European and Brazilian institutions. The Turkish coordinator of the project is Sabancı University School of Management faculty member and Entrepreneurship Council Director Dilek Çetindamar.

CEBRABIC aims to improve cooperation in research, technology and entrepreneurship between European Union Member States and Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America. Consortium members will work together for four years to build the CEBRABIC. The coordinators of the project are the Federation of Industry Chambers (Confederação Nacional da Indústria (CNI)) in Brazil and Fraunhofer IPK in Berlin, Germany.

Sabancı University School of Management faculty member and Entrepreneurship Council Director Dilek Çetindamar explained that the involvement of Sabancı University in an international cooperation would create ample opportunities to meet and collaborate with a number of new institutions for research and development endeavors.

Çetindamar said that the CEBRABIC Project included the foundation of a center of excellence on entrepreneurship in Brazil, which would help to establish rapport with EU countries and organize relationships between research and business.

Dilek Çetindamar said, “As Sabancı University, we will take part in the foundation of this center by contributing to strategy creation, training program preparation, and website building. We will have gained international experience. This will boost our entrepreneurship activities as well. The international links we will establish will allow us to expand the network available to the entrepreneurs in our incubation facilities and ecosystem. We will contact companies in Turkey that already do or wish to do business with Brazil and explore project partnership options. The training programs created for the project will later become available in our university as well."

The CEBRABIC Project has 12 partner institutions from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey.

About CEBRABIC:

CEBRABIC will be a center working on a network basis.

Creating synergies and complementarities is the core value of CEBRABIC, particularly with European research and innovation (R&I) structures located in Brazil, to complement, expand and enhance its service portfolio. The center will provide technology-related services, resourcing to the network of regional innovation hubs and of external service providers, constantly seeking for linkages to the private industrial sector and to investors.

CEBRABIC intends to cluster at the European level services which are currently provided at the bilateral level by European structures with presence in Brazil. Independent European structures operating in Brazil will be involved in the CEBRABIC network. This will enable CEBRABIC to rely on a lean organizational structure, with just the essential physical and human resources allocated.

The implementation of CEBRABIC will follow a three-staged strategy: the planning stage (from M1 to M12), in which CEBRABIC’s business model will be developed; the piloting stage (M12 to M24), focused on CEBRABIC delivering services on an experimental basis and the proper monitoring and assessment of this performance, as well as various adjustments leading to the finalization of the business model, and the full implementation stage (M24-M48), in which CEBRABIC will be established as an independent legal entity and as a financially self-sustainable organization.

The main target group of CEBRABIC are R&I&B organizations, comprising a wide range of specific type of stakeholders: universities, research centers (basic and applied), technology transfer entities, technology parks, business incubators, innovation agencies, funding agencies, business associations, chambers of commerce, clusters, industrial companies, SMEs and startups from all sectors, consultancy companies, risk capital investors, individual researchers, professors and entrepreneurs.

Sabancı University ranked as the top institution of Istanbul by QS

Recognized as Turkey's most entrepreneurial and innovative university, Sabancı ranked as the top institution of Istanbul by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds). According to QS Best Student Cities 2017 rankings, Istanbul is listed as the 71^st among 100 cities and Sabancı University is ranked as the top institution of Istanbul.

Published annually, the QS Best Student Cities index showcases the best urban destinations for international students, based on a diverse range of indicators grouped into six key categories. These categories consisted of: University Rankings, Student Mix, Desirability, Employer Activity, Affordability and Student View.

Istanbul ranked 86^th in desirability, 63^rd in employer activity, 62^nd in affordability and 36^th in student experience categories whereas Montréal is listed the world’s #1 student city, bringing an end to Paris’ four-year reign at the top.

Internationally ranked universities in Istanbul

From the five universities internationally ranked from Istanbul, Sabancı University is ranked as the top institution. The list of internationally ranked universities in Istanbul are Sabancı University, Koç University, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Technical University and Istanbul University.

Sabancı University previously ranked between 441^th and 450^th in the QS World University Rankings 2016/17, between 61^st and 70^th in the QS Top Universities Under 50, 13^th in EECA University Rankings.

Commemorating Our Founding President Tosun Terzioğlu

We will be commemorating our Founding President Prof. Dr. Tosun Terzioğlu and share with you the information about the arrangements that our university has been conducting in order to ensure that his values will always be remembered by the members of Sabancı University.

Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017

Time: 11:00am-12:00(noon)

Place: University Center, Sinema Salonu