The Abdullah Gül University has made the commitment to continue to implement all UN Sustainable Development Goals into its processes. As such, AGU has added key elements into its way of teaching students (and staff) to view Sustainability as a priority.
Below are some examples of how AGU has chosen to include Sustainable Development Goals in its practices:
- New Generation University Project
- AGU TTO SDGs Awareness Training Series
- AGU Global Courses
- SDG Academy
- Non-Academic Transcript
- Sustainability-focused Programs and Courses
- AGU Career Center- AGU Career Talks
- SDG Courses Statistics
NEW GENERATION UNIVERSITY PROJECT
The Abdullah Gül University (AGU) was created as a Socio-Technical University Model for Higher Education, an on-going initiative initiated and supported by the Turkish Ministry of Development.
The project was defined with the help of about 20 Search Conferences and 40 Workshops, and has aimed at pioneering the New Generation University model in Turkey, with unique and innovative curricula and educational processes, in the objective of disseminating the project’s findings across all higher education institutions in the country and beyond.
This pilot project, started in 2010 by the Turkish State to revolutionize Higher Education, was shaped by +700 contributors from Universities, Corporations, NGOs, etc. and is the 1st cross- sectorial initiative for a Hybrid University model.
The Socio-Technical University Model Project has provided AGU with the necessary intellectual capital to be innovative and bring universities’ 3rd mission, "Societal Impact," to the Higher Education agenda in Turkey and beyond. AGU Rector, Prof. Sabuncuoğlu, said: "We have gathered an incredible amount of intellectual capital on our path towards being a global university thanks to this project. It improved our vision, created the identity and DNA of our university. In order to be an innovative university, we needed that intellectual capital. It helped to develop, cultivate and partially establish an AGU culture. It brought "Societal Impact" to the agenda of Turkey and Turkish higher education as the 3rd mission of universities."
This innovative Socio-Technical University model has brought rapid and significant results since the creation of the Abdullah Gül University. All University units and activities have been affected by the new approach and adapted their structure and functioning accordingly. Some unique units, centers, platforms, curricula, programs, courses, etc. have been designed and launched to serve the new model.
You can read about the early results of the project in this report (in Turkish) and condensed University profile.
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AGU TTO SDGs Awareness Training Series
In cooperation with AGU TTO and Kayseri Model Factory, Training Series is organised to raise awareness of SDGs. These trainings are organised periodically for each new group of participants who start training at Kayseri Model Factory.
With the information presentations, it is aimed to introduce the SDGs and implement these goals in the local area starting with the employees of the company by aiming at the spreading effect. In the meeting held in this direction; Information presentations on the United Nations (UN) 17 SDGs, the activities carried out in this context at AGU, the activities that can be carried out in companies and the partnerships to be established on Sustainability throughout the city are carried out by AGU TTO.
Some examples of SDG Awareness Trainings carried out:
1- 09.06.2021, Lecturer: Melike Aygün Çakıroğlu
2- 14.09.2021, Lecturer: Fatma Şener Fidan
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3- 22.12.2021, Lecturer: Şuheda Şen
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AGU GLOBAL COURSES
AGU – as a research university seeking solutions to global challenges and aiming at developing citizens who can contribute to societies and shape the future (AGU Mission Statement) – developed an innovative Global Challenge Curriculum (GLB) composed of one mandatory course and several elective courses taught throughout the four Undergraduate academic years. These courses focus on global topics such as the ones tackled by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
AGU Global Courses Objectives:
- To help students comprehend and seek solutions to current and future world challenges in an innovative and stimulating class environment.
- To help students develop and improve soft and hard skills that are relevant to today’s job market
- To Establish a culture of dialogue, debate, “Learning by Doing”, teamwork, empathy and participatory learning
- To enable progress through the blending of all 3 Contemporary University Missions: Education, Research and Societal Impact
AGU Global Courses:
GLB 101: “AGU WAYS” (Credit 3, ECTS 4)
AGU is a new generation university that aims to blend all three missions of a university that are societal impact, research and education. The blending will lead us to generate a philosophy that is called the AGUWAYS. AGUWAYS gives priority to societal impact in the blending process. Societal impact is embodied in global challenges and the course is there designed around and is also an introduction to global challenges. In addition, AGUWAYS aims to develop a competence in blending changing, knowing and learning through embracing real world problems.
GLB 102: “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” (Credit 3, ECTS 5)
The main aim of this course is to provide students with the entrepreneurial orientation and mindset. Some of the elements that are key for a successful start-up and will be covered in this course are, the ability to seek and explore opportunities, value proposition, understanding customers, having a solid marketing plan, working with a good team, understanding the technology, and financing and managing the cash flows. Creating new businesses also requires a good understanding of innovation. New discoveries, new technologies, competition, and globalization compel both entrepreneurs and existing firms to foster innovation. This course also examines the theory and practice of promoting and managing innovation in start-ups and existing firms.
GLB 201: “Food and Health” (Credit 3, ECTS 5)
GLB201 is designed to introduce information on global issues related to health and food. This course will provide awareness of the impact of some factors such as social class, generation, economy, environment, etc. on food/health related global challenges. Students will explore global issues such as food sustainability/food security/food safety, as well as health-related global issues within the context of their political, economic, social and environmental components. Current hot topics such as genetically modified foods, epidemics (outbreaks) and their social effects will be also discussed.
GLB 202 “Immigration and Population” (Credit 3, ECTS 4)
This course is intended to improve the participating students’ knowledge, awareness and problem solving abilities on topics related with immigration and population. The course is designed as a multi-disciplinary one. The instructors, assistants and students are coming from diverse academic backgrounds; which is expected to produce interesting and thought-provoking outputs by the end of the semester. Having this fruitful human resource in hand, wide range of activities will be done during the semester. In line with AGU’s mission of integrating teaching, research and social impact this course aims to provide a strong theoretical basis on immigration, promote students for conducting an original research which aims to solve problems associated with immigration in their immediate surroundings. Structural determinants of tolerance against immigrants in Kayseri, economy of population development and migration, the impact of diasporas on host and home communities are some of the contents that are going to be covered in the classes.
GLB 301 “Sustainability” (Credit 3, ECTS 4)
Description: This course provides fundamental knowledge and skills for the issues of sustainable development through several projects which are supposed to cover three different but interrelated aspects of sustainability: environmental, economic and socio-political. As such, it aims to increase the students’ awareness of the major issues referred by the sustainable development literature and provide them with the fundamental skills to develop solutions to such issues. Another goal of this course is to make students engage with the group-based study and learning.
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SDG ACADEMY
Already a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the global initiative of the United Nations, Abdullah Gül University (AGU) has also joined the SDG Academy (Sustainable Development Goals Academy), the education leg of the initiative.
The SDG Academy is an online education platform that creates and delivers Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) on interdisciplinary issues concerning 17 sustainable development goals determined by the United Nations. Course contents are being prepared by academics, practitioners and experts working on sustainable development.
With the application process led by Industrial Engineering Chair Prof. İbrahim Akgün and Architecture Chair Assoc. Prof. Burak Asiliskender, AGU presented its work towards the sustainable development goals and joined the SDG Academy.
AGU, particularly the Industrial Engineering and Architecture departments, will access all course materials of the SDG Academy, use them in classes and create new contents with the SDG Academy's team of experts.
NON-ACADEMIC TRANSCRIPT
With the coordination of the AGU Youth Factory and Dean of Students Office the Non-Academic Transcript (NAT) was created by the Abdullah Gül University, to ensure easy recognition of our students’ competencies.
The academic achievement of the students is recognized by the diploma and the diploma appendix they receive when they graduate from their respective universities. Via NAT, students will make the extracurricular activities they took part in and the competencies (soft skills) they acquired recognizable.
Competence is the combination of knowledge, skill and attitude necessary to succeed. Young people have the opportunity to develop the skills they need by experimenting, doing and learning along with many different activities during their university education. By having awareness regarding this process, they can improve learning efficiency to a very high degree.
As AGU, we aim to enable our students to translate all activities into the learning process with this awareness, or to participate in activities in accordance with the competencies they need during the learning process.
The seven competencies listed below have been identified as the synthesis of the competencies stated in the sources of United Nations, World Economic Forum, ILO, European Union and Pearson and the competencies determined in line with the AGU Vision.
NAT Competencies
- Communication
- Collaboration and Teamwork
- International and Multicultural Awareness
- Leadership and taking initiative
- Creativity, Innovation and Flexibility
- Planning and Organization
- Discipline and Motivation
The Non-Academic Transcript system is open to the use of AGU students. To login on to the system: http://nonacademic.agu.edu.tr/
SUSTAINABILITY-FOCUSED PROGRAMS & COURSES
Another sign of AGU's focus on the SDGs is the programs that AGU is launching, integrating key topics of the Sustainable Development Goals. One such program is the Master program in Sustainable Urban Infrastructure, where students address topics such as Sustainability in Urban Infrastructure, Sustainable Energy, Clean Water Access and Pollution Prevention and Environmental Resource Management.
Course List
1. Sustainability in Urban Infrastructure
2. Clean Water Access Infrastructure in Developing Countries
3. Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering
4. Water and Wastewater Treatment Engineering
5. Engineering for Sustainability
AGU CAREER CENTER-AGU CAREER TALKS
As a main principle, AGU Career Center organizes all events open to public. All the educational events, conferences and seminars are organized and calls are published on social media where public has access to. The webpage of the Career Center also includes data open to all about platforms to find interships, scholarships and job both domestically and internationally. *AGU Career Center has organized five seminars on different sectors of the job market and all of those seminars were open to public.
SDG COURSES STATISTICS
