From The Rector
From The Rector
The education of Samsun University is primarily based on the principle of being connected to our cultural and erudite roots and carrying it to the future by giving due credit to the historical heritage on which our beloved nation carries on. We believe that the prerequisite for a modern man to have a meaningful relationship with his own age and land is to receive the required education. Our educational vision is based on the goal of being a scientific, cultural, and intellectual focal point, both at the regional and national levels. Thus, we believe that we can repay our debt to our lands and history by building a pioneering institution that shapes the future.
We are aware that the educational vision of each university is a reinterpretation of the concept of the university beyond determining a unique university perspective. The historical legacy that we will entrust to the young generations in the light of scientific methods, will be the source of new discoveries, inventions, and groundbreaking studies thanks to the openness it has. Today, while the strong connection of medicine with philosophy, politics with economy, engineering with psychology, and literature with technology is getting stronger, university education is in a position to lean on a broad horizon with various specialized fields that contribute to each other. In today’s world, where there are no sharp boundaries between disciplines, and contact and transition are constantly increasing, the individual who has to determine his future in a place that favors freedom or seclusion cannot be deemed worthy of an educational approach that is isolated from the society. In line with this relevance, individuals will have the opportunity to reinforce their freedom with responsibility and overcome their seclusion in the culture of Samsun University, which has adopted the principle of “qualified university for a qualified society”, above all, based on an interdisciplinary horizon and institutionalized within the society.
The understanding of education that Turkey needs today is the qualitative depth that needs to be developed in parallel with the quantitative growth in higher education. Samsun University aims to contribute to regional and national development with its qualified academic staff and contribute to skilled labor not only with the contemporary and interdisciplinary formal education it provides but also with the projects and certificate programs developed in its application and research centers. Today, the necessity of a certain time and place in education gradually disappears and our university has a polycentric and dynamic structure (Rector’s Office in Samsun city center, Central Campus in Canik district, Aviation Faculty in 19 Mayıs district, Vocational School in Kavak district, etc.) that can achieve these goals without being dependent on the campus. At the same time, our university is trying to realize an educational vision that has long exceeded the Humboldtian education ideal and is compatible with the needs of our age and our country, by holding much online education, online conferences, and online meetings.
Experiencing what is learned is gaining more and more importance in the preparation phase of individuals’ professional life. Incorporating applied education reinforced with theoretical formation produces more effective and productive graduates in society and city life. In this sense, we are a university that integrates experience into education, closely knows and observes the needs of the city and the region, thanks to its laboratories and cooperation with local actors.
Our university, which aims to gather the distinguished minds of our country and to follow their extraordinary reasoning, tries to add a balance to the existential struggle of our country with our social scientist staff who are looking for the intellectual ground of reasonableness.
Being a university that guides new and creative ideas rather than providing information based on rote is one of the main conditions of being a pioneer and innovative university. Along with this fact, raising individuals who support development and creativity and aim for the new and good is an essential part. Our University, which has internalized awareness of all technological, social, and environmental problems to be a pioneering and innovative university in the region of the Black Sea, has adopted the principle of transferring awareness and responsibility to the younger generations. Samsun University, which provides undergraduate education with a wide variety of DAP (Double Major Programs) opportunities as well as multidisciplinary department curricula in order to educate graduates with high awareness who are beneficial to Turkey and the world, also carries out its graduate programs within the framework of the same vision and principles.
The educational vision of Samsun University prioritizes the regional needs and university-industry cooperation relations with all sectors that sustain the economy of the city of Samsun and the Black Sea Region. In this context, our university tries to plan and take actions by considering the needs of the city and the region with its Faculty of Medicine which will be connected through the affiliation system of Samsun Training and Research Hospital, the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, which includes departments such as the Maritime Business Management, Economy and Finance, International Trade, Business Administration, the School of Civil Aviation and the Faculty of Aeronautics, which has its own airport and pilotage training, the Faculty of Architecture and Design, which offers a different and unique curriculum than its counterparts, the Faculty of Engineering, which has the only software engineering department in the region, and Kavak Vocational School and Vocational School of Technical Sciences which aims to contribute directly to employment.
Samsun University gives importance to the evaluation of the subjective experiences of Turkish universities as part of their institutional progress. It aims to evaluate the common achievements, experience, and knowledge in the scientific pool of its own academic platform and to blend it to move all this output to a further point.
Fundamental success in education depends on one’s learning to apply oneself in the possibility of experiences that reveal questions. In this respect, the notion of applying knowledge in universities needs to be differentiated in terms of both Social Sciences and Science. Practice should be interpreted as the student’s participation or engagement in an adventure that is still taking place, not re-learning a knowledge that has been introduced in the past. Therefore, putting a scientific law or rule into practice in relation to the individual’s own lifestyle, in other words, to a concrete situation, depends on the cultural richness as well as the scientific knowledge that the university adds to the students. Samsun University is aware of the fact that it will add value and meaning to itself as an institution to the extent of the horizon and perspective it can add to its students.
The vision of Samsun University, in this context, is based on the idea of building the foundation of a qualified university for a qualified society in a multi-layered manner with scientific knowledge, intellectual equipment, cultural depth, and contemporary knowledge. While the university’s educational vision is approaching the 100th anniversary of the Republic with firm steps, it cannot be considered separately from Turkey’s 2023, 2053, and 2071 visions and it includes the awareness of not seeing its own existence independent of the country’s cultural, intellectual and scientific development. In this sense, while carrying the historical heritage on their shoulders with care, like a carnation, the University believes that a qualified society can be achieved with the endless contribution of each individual’s distinct and polyphonic nature.
Prof. Dr. Mahmut Aydın
Rector