European University Association

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATION

INSTITUTIONAL EVALUATION PROGRAMME

ÇUKUROVAUNIVERSITY

SELF EVALUATION

REPORT

Adana, Turkey

January 2006

Forward

ÇukurovaUniversity is a visionary institution, committed to the exploration of knowledge, the construction of partnerships, and innovative academic delivery. It is a large and diverse institution, serving 30.000 undergraduate and 2.500 graduate students and committing itself to day and night classes and education of adults in the workforce. Çukurova University offers a full range of lower and upper level courses, for students interested in certificates, associate, bachelor's, master’s and Ph.D. degrees. ÇukurovaUniversity has been providing quality academic programs and services since 1973.

ÇukurovaUniversity applied to EUA, Institutional Evaluation Programme as an integral part of elaborating its own strategic or action plan. Thus the IEP evaluation report will shed light to the coming decades of ÇukurovaUniversity. We as a University welcome every kind of contribution towards a more competitive CukurovaUniversity

We believe that this self evaluation report and its attachments will serve you as a roadmap for your future evaluations. We welcome you to ÇukurovaUniversity, to promote and guarantee quality assurance, both at national and international settings.

Prof. Dr. Alper Akınoğlu

Rector

CONTENTS

FORWARD
I.INTRODUCTION / 3
II.NATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT / 3

BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE INSTITUTION

/ 4

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES IN UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION AND RESOURCES

/ 13
V.INSTITUTIONAL NORMS AND VALUES / 15
VI.THE BALANCE BETWEEN CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION / 17
VII.CU’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STAKEHOLDERS / 17
VIII.CU’S APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS / 17
IX.CONSTRAINTS / 18

QUALITY MANAGEMENT

/ 19

QUALITY CONTROL

/ 19
XII.STRATEGİC MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY FOR CHANGE / 20
XIII.FINAL OBSERVATIONS / 20
APPENDIX A RECTOR’S OFFICE / 22
APPENDIX B UNIVERSITY SENATE / 23
APPENDIX C ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD OF CUKUROVAUNIVERSITY / 25
APPENDIX D TURKISH EDUCATION SYSTEM / 26
APPENDIX E BILETERAL AGREEMENTS OF CU / 27
APPENDIX F SWOT FOR FACULTIES / 28
APPENDIX G TURKISH EDUCATION PROCESS / 42

I. INTRODUCTION

Cukurova University (CU) applied to EUA Institutional Evaluation Programme in May 2005 to have a chance of third party view about its mission and vision setting. In time EUA IEP became an integral part of ongoing Strategic Planning efforts of the University. Following members have taken part in the CU IEP Steering Committee in the preparation of the report.

Prof. Dr. Nejat Erk

Prof. Dr. Nurdan Evliyaoğlu

Prof. Dr. İbrahim Ortaş

Prof. Dr. Yüksel Ufuktepe

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Gürçınar

Prof. Dr. Metin Kumlu

Prof. Dr. Adnan Gümüş

Prof. Dr. İlter Uzel

Prof. Dr. Hasan Çetin

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azmi Yalçın

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeki Salih Zengin

Assis. Prof. Dr. Oya Yüreğir

The process started in early summer of 2005, via initiating the self-evaluation process at a departmental level. Then with joint work, the documents have been gathered reflecting faculty self-evaluation reports. Thus the following self-evaluation report, reflects the overall university performance and observations. Supplementary Faculty data and self-evaluation reports will be sent to you in the coming weeks.

II. NATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT

Turkish Education System

The basic structure of the Turkish national education system is outlinedin Basic Law No.1739 on National Education. The Ministry of National Education (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı) is responsible for all educational services in the country excluding the higher education, In accordance with the Law No. 2547 of 1981, the Council of Higher Education (Yükseköğretim Kurulu, YÖK) is the planning, coordinating and policy making body for higher education. Formal education includes pre-school education, basic education, secondary education, and higher education. Appendix G.

III. BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE INSTITUTION

History

The Faculty of Agriculture, founded in 1969 by AnkaraUniversity, and the Faculty of Medicine, founded in 1972 by AtatürkUniversity, was combined to form CukurovaUniversity in I973. The number of the faculties rose to five when the faculties of Basic Sciences, Administrative Sciences and Engineering were founded. In 1982, the Faculty of Basic Sciences was reorganized as the Faculty of Sciences and Letters, and the Faculty of Administrative Sciences was combined with the Department of Economics and Administrative Sciences forming the Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics. The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture emerged from the combination of the Faculty of Engineering and the Engineering Department of the Adana Academy of Administrative and Commercial Sciences. Also, the Faculty of Education was established when the two-year Foreign Language Colleges of the Ministry of Education in Adana, Mersin and Hatay were combined. Adana and Hatay Education Institutes joined to the Cukurova University System. Faculty of Fisheries was established as School of Fisheries in 1985 then converted to become a Faculty in 1992. The Faculty of Fine Arts was established in 1993 and built up in 1998 to activate the departments of Interior Architecture, Ceramic, Graphic and Textile.

A total of 9 Vocational Colleges are open to education. With the addition of 3 post-graduate institutions and the State Conservatory of Çukurova University, the number of academic bodies increased to 23.

Campus

The CukurovaUniversity's Balcali campus, which is on the eastern side of SeyhanDamLake, occupies an area of 20 km2. The name "Balcali" originates from the name of the village that stood on the present campus before the University was built.

The campus houses administrative and educational buildings with labs available for research services in various branches of science, a hospital complex, a central library, a central cafeteria, sports facilities, teacher residences, social facilities and dormitories which accommodate a total of 3500 students.

A large number of public transport vehicles regularly commute between the city center and the campus, providing mass transport for the students and university personnel.

University Programs, Academic Staff and Students

The university consists of 10 faculties (with 80 undergraduate programs), 3 graduate schools (with 64 post-graduate programs), 3 colleges (with 4 undergraduate programs), 9 vocational colleges (with 23 vocational programs) and YADIM (Foreign Languages Research and Application Center where both undergraduate and post-graduate students are taught English), and a state conservatory.

a) Faculties and Institutes

The university consists of 10 faculties (with 80 undergraduate programs) and 3 graduate schools (with 64 post-graduate programs),

Table 1. Distribution of Programs within Faculties and Institutes

Faculties / No of
Underg.
Prog.
4 Years / No of
Night Underg.
Prog.
4 Years / No of
Grad-Underg.
Prog.
5-6 Years / No of
Masters for Teacher without
Thesis / No of
Masters
without Thesis / No of
Masters
with Thesis / No of PhD / Total
Fac. of Econ. & Admin. Sciences / 5 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 6 / 4 / 2 / 19
The Faculty of Education / 10 / 5 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 10 / 5 / 37
The Faculty of Fine Arts / 4 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 6
The Faculty of Divinity / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 11 / 13
The Faculty of Medicine / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 16 / 17
The Faculty of Dentistry / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 5 / 2
The Faculty of Sciences and Letters / 6 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 7 / 6 / 24
The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture / 10 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 9 / 8 / 37
The Faculty of Agriculture / 3 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 10 / 10 / 23
The Faculty of Fisheries / 1 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1 / 4
TOTAL

The university employs 1909 academic staff (24 from abroad) of which 332 are professors, 143 associate professors, 299 assistant professors, 153 instructors, 723 research assistants, 77 specialists, 157 lecturers, 1 translator.

During the 2005–06 education years there are 18.149 students and 996 faculty members and 733 research assistants conducting research and teaching at CU.

Table 2. Distribution of Academic Staff in Faculties

Faculties / No of Profs / No of Assoc
Profs / No of Assis.
Profs / No of Instructors
Specialists / No of Research Ass.
(Fac.+Ins.) / No of Students / No of Students
Per Staff
Fac. of Econ. & Admin. Sciences / 16 / 10 / 22 / 7 / 25 / 2892 / 52.58
The Faculty of Education / 9 / 7 / 51 / 58 / 21 / 5413 / 43.30
The Faculty of Fine Arts / 1 / 0 / 3 / 33 / 11 / 177 / 4.78
The Faculty of Divinity / 3 / 5 / 11 / 7 / 13 / 325 / 12.50
The Faculty of Medicine / 177 / 55 / 51 / 26 / 850 / 2.75
The Faculty of Dentistry / 3 / 3 / 5 / 4 / 25 / 207 / 13.80
The Faculty of Sciences and Letters / 50 / 14 / 30 / 3 / 63 / 3004 / 18.77
The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture / 34 / 18 / 40 / 18 / 3895 / 35.41
The Faculty of Agriculture / 101 / 23 / 32 / 6 / 125 / 1748 / 11.21
The Faculty of Fisheries / 6 / 5 / 13 / 5 / 25 / 570 / 23.75
TOTAL

Average student per faculty is 18.22 students which on the overall matches with European standards. Table 1 show that in social sciences class sizes are relatively more crowded than other faculties.

CU has three graduate schools under the name of Institutes (Natural and Applied Sciences, Social Sciences and Health Sciences). As stated earlier CU is among the ten distinctive higher education institutions offering post gradate help to other higher education institutions. Below you find the distribution of graduate and post gradate students among different Institutes.

Table 3. Graduate and Post-Graduate Students at CU 2005

Institutes (Graduate Schools) / Masters / PhD / Total
Natural and Applied Sciences / 1696 / 532 / 2228
Social Sciences / 1095 / 122 / 1217
Health Sciences / 162 / 16 / 178
Total / 2953 / 670 / 3623

b) Vocational Colleges

The university has 3 colleges (with 4 undergraduate programs) and 9 vocational colleges (with 23 vocational programs).

Table 4. Distribution of Academic Staff and Students among VHS

No / VHS / Total
Students / Total Number of Instructors / Technicians / Corporate
Personnel / Staff
1 / Adana VHS / 4633 / 21 / - / 1 / 4
2 / Ceyhan VHS / 1124 / 22 / 8 / - / 6
3 / Kadirli VHS / 308 / 7 / 1 / - / 2
4 / Kara isalı VHS / 387 / 15 / - / - / 2
5 / Kozan VHS / 918 / 9 / 3 / - / 4
6 / Osmaniye VHS / 1750 / 42 / 9 / - / 11
7 / Health Ser. VHS / 245 / 3 / - / 1 / 2
8 / Yumurtalık VHS / 151 / - / - / - / -
9 / Ceyhan Health. VHS / 115 / 1 / - / 2 / 1
Total / 9631 / 120 / 21 / 4 / 32

VHS: Vocational High School

ConservatoryAdanaVocational School, Physical Education and SportsVocational School and AdanaHealthVocational School have also been involved in the self-evaluation process.

Above cited VHS’s have a vision for benefiting from EU programs and improved infrastructure, while for their action plan they also focus on insufficient civic service posts availability.

AdanaHealthVocational School has a vision for improving the technology usage and having professional midwifes for future needs. The graduates of the institution can easily be employed but faces shortages at the level of instructors.

Adana Physical Education and SportsVocational school has a vision for quality culture formation for the coming five years, and this will cover member of staff and students. Major weaknesses stated are limited number of publications by college academic staff, temporary Vocational School Buildings, and lack of international collaboration. Given these constraints, it is not advised to increase further student acceptance without structural changes in the budget and number of academic staff.

c) Research and ApplicationCenters

There are also 30 independent research and application centers for specific research. These are:

Adana University-Industry Common Research Center
Agricultural Extension, Communication, Research and Application Center
Agriculture of Mediterranean Countries Research and ApplicationCenter
Atatürk Culture and Fine Arts Research and ApplicationCenter
Atatürk's Principles and Reforms Research and ApplicationCenter
Computer Sciences Research and Application Center
Cotton Research and ApplicationCenter
Çukurova University European Union Documentation Center
Environmental Problems Research and Application Center
Family Planning and Infertility Research and ApplicationCenter
Fertility-Sterility and Family Planning Research and ApplicationCenter
Foreign Languages Teaching Research and Application Center
Genetic and Embryo Engineering Research and ApplicationCenter
Halil Avcı Deaf Research and ApplicationCenter
Hereditary Blood Diseases Research and ApplicationCenter
Industrial and Medical Electronic Instrumentation Research and ApplicationCenter
Machine and Equipment Design and Production Research and Application Center
Medical Sciences, Experimental Research And Application Center
Organ Transplantation Research and Application Center
Pozantı Agricultural Research and ApplicationCenter
Prenatal Research and ApplicationCenter
Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Research and ApplicationCenter
Space Sciences and Solar Energy Research and Application Center
Strategical Research Center
Subtropical Fruits Research and Application Center
Tropical Diseases Research and ApplicationCenter
Tumor Research and ApplicationCenter
Turkology Research Center
Women's StudiesResearchCenter
Yunus Emre CultureArt Research and ApplicationCenter

Education and Instruction

a) Teaching and Learning

CU offers associate, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate degrees of higher education, curriculum steadily changing towards measuring learning outcomes. The structure of specific graduates programs and programs offered by the Faculty of Medicine reflect perfect examples for life-long learning. Search conferences and self evaluation scheme has created opportunities, serving stakeholders view in curriculum development. YADİM the Preparatory School of foreign languages prepares first year undergraduate and gradate student towards their degree programs. Associate degree runs for two years while undergraduate degree runs for four years. As the steps are taken towards improving the efficacy of high school programs, three-year undergraduate programs could be realized. This being part of Bologna Process is a national goal not only to be focused at CU level. Regular masters programs run for two years and PhD programs runs around four years. With recent regulation changes, overachievers can be taken to PhD programs without a master’s requirement.

b) The language of Instruction

The language of instruction in almost all the programs of the university is Turkish. However, the language of instruction in the Electric-Electronics and Mechanical Engineering Departments of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture is English.

Students receive compulsory English preparatory classes in all the programs of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences.

English preparatory classes are optional for the students registered in the Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics Departments of the Faculty of Science and Letters and for the students of Civil Engineering, Geology, Architecture, Computer Engineering, Industry and Textile Departments of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture.

Foreign language preparatory classes are conducted in the English, French and German Language Teaching Departments of the Faculty of Education.

The Holy Koran and the fundamentals of Islam and Arabic are taught as a preparatory program for one academic year in the Faculty of Divinity.

YADIM-Foreign Languages Research and ApplicationCenter where both undergraduate and post-graduate students are taught English.

c) Trainingship and Applications

Within CU, trainingship is compulsory in major faculties while being optional among the rest. Due to the overload of trainingship offering institutions, efficiency is questionable.

d) International Relations and Erasmus Project

CU has been among the 15 Universities in Turkey starting the Pilot Erasmus Project. Thus, in 2003-04 educational year 15 undergraduate students have been sent to Linköping University, Sweden. In 2004-2005 periods 73 Erasmus Students have been sent abroad putting CU to third rank in student exchange in Turkey. 2005-06 is an exceptional year where there will be 147 ongoing students. At the appendix we will find information about incoming and outgoing students and faculty under Erasmus.

CU has 109 active bilateral agreements from abroad. Thus with its physical infrastructure and experienced International Office can handle every kind of student and faculty exchange, international conferences, workshops and similar activities. YADİM the English preparatory school for CU also serves as a Language Teaching Center for Erasmus Students coming to CU and to nearby Universities.

Beyond these opportunities, some academic staff and students have difficulties in fluency and financial support towards international collaborations such as international conferences seems to be limited.

e) Student Support and Guidance

Apart from selected faculty attempts offering limited scholarships to attract better students, existing governmental budget limits other promotion activities. University organizes a fair each year which lasts a week, for potential university students, creating opportunity of a better information flow. University employs several students for alternative activities to improve the living standards of unprivileged students. Recent SWOT analysis has pointed out the importance of counseling and academic advisor activities. We fully believe that the incoming strategic plan will shed more light on faculty-student dialog and student academic counseling. Today, medical support unit of the university offers free medical counseling and medical help not covering medicine expenses. Service seems to be meeting the demand. Active role of students in university outcomes should be appreciated and project assistance should be encouraged for academic development and financial assistance.

Table 5. Publications For 2000

Faculties / International Publication and Activities / National
Publication
and Activities / Int. Publ.
Per Fac.Memb. / Nation. Pub
Per Fac. Memb.
Fac. of Econ. & Admin. Sciences / 79 / 410 / 0.88 / 5.15
The Education of Faculty / 37 / 450 / 1.09 / 13.24
The Faculty of Fine Arts / 3 / 23 / 0.21 / 1.64
The Faculty of Divinity / 4 / 72 / 0.40 / 8.00
The Faculty of Medicine / 145 / 490 / 0.41 / 1.39
The Faculty of Dentistry / 10 / 27 / 0.90 / 2.45
Faculty of Sciences and Letters / 62 / 322 / 0.62 / 3.25
The Fac. of Engin. And Architecture / 65 / 92 / 0.59 / 0.84
The Faculty of Agriculture / 210 / 748 / 1.35 / 4.79
The Faculty of Fisheries / 11 / 34 / 0.61 / 1.89
TOTAL

International Publications cover: Academic books, articles, conference presentation, workshops, symposiums, applied symposiums, exhibition, play, concert, FP6, LIFE and others, authentic design, COST projects, international prizes, international consultancy, international editors.

National Publications cover: Academic books, articles, conference presentation, workshops, symposiums, applied symposiums, exhibition, play, concert, FP6, LIFE and others, authentic design, COST projects, prizes, consultancy, editorship.

Table 6. Publications For 2005

Faculties / International Publication and Activities / National
Publication
and Activities / Int. Publ.
Per Fac. Memb. / Nat. Pub
Per Fac. Memb.
Fac. of Econ. & Admin. Sciences / 139 / 424 / 2.89 / 8.83
The Education of Faculty / 72 / 420 / 1.07 / 6.27
The Faculty of Fine Arts / 12 / 30 / 0.85 / 2,14
The Faculty of Divinity / 4 / 233 / 0.21 / 12.26
The Faculty of Medicine / 268 / 838 / 0.76 / 2.38
The Faculty of Dentistry / 63 / 101 / 5.73 / 9.18
Faculty of Sciences and Letters / 67 / 271 / 0.67 / 2.73
The Faculty of Engin. And Architecture / 112 / 115 / 1.02 / 1.05
The Faculty of Agriculture / 294 / 761 / 1.88 / 4.88
The Faculty of Fisheries / 33 / 60 / 1.38 / 2.50
TOTAL / 976 / 2809 / 0.97 / 2.82

Table 7. Publications in Index (ASCI, SSCI, SCI) For 2004

Faculties / ASCI, SSCI, SCI / Index
Per Memb. Staff
Fac. of Econ. & Admin. Sciences / 1 / 0.02
The Faculty of Education / 5 / 0.08
The Faculty of Fine Arts / 1 / 0.25
The Faculty of Divinity / 0 / 0.00
The Faculty of Medicine / 134 / 0.48
The Faculty of Dentistry / 10 / 1.11
Faculty of Sciences and Letters / 64 / 0.68
The Fac. of Engin. And Architecture / 75 / 0.85
The Faculty of Agriculture / 52 / 0.33
The Faculty of Fisheries / 14 / 0.64
TOTAL / 356 / 0.47

The following table reflects the share of research funding from the overall budget. The data does not include, individual research projects financed outside of the University.