Sustainable Development Goals and Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Center

AGU Sustainablity Projects

AGUF- AGU Foundation

As AGU aspires to its aim of being a research and teaching University of international standards, an institution playing a key role in its development is the AGU Foundation.

Founded on 13 July 2011, the work of the AGU Foundation is dedicated to the overall goal of supporting the university with the following three specific aims:

a) To provide financial incentives to successful students, students with financial needs and alumni looking for further study and career opportunities.

b) To provide economic cultural and social support to the University’s employees.

c) To fund developments in the university’s physical and technical technological facilities, and underwrite improvement in education, research and opportunities for their application.

Supporters of the text foundation include the following figures prominent in a variety of fields of Turkish enterprise.

The Foundation web site is: www.aguv.org.tr

 

AGU KAYSERI MODEL FACTORY

AGU established a “Model Factory” on its Sümer Campus in October 2018, which started running in 2019. The launch was made during a meeting held by KAYSO (Kayseri Chamber of Industry).
This ambitious project falls within the framework of the Turkish government’s 100-day action plan of the national strategic plan 2019-2023. The project is mainly financed by the German Investment Bank (KfW) as well as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which have committed to invest about 14 Mio TRY.

“A Model Factory is defined as a tool (a capability center) to disseminate principles of operational excellence by using experiential learning techniques. Experiential learning principles, which combine theory and practice and thereby create lasting impact, set model factories apart from the similar centers that also aim at improving the competitiveness and productivity of  enterprises.” [tr.undp.org]

“The Project aiming at establishment and operationalization of Applied SMEs Capability Center (Model Factory)” foresees the launch of “Model Factories” in ten cities in Turkey in order to accompany the transition of SMEs to Industry 4.0 Technologies, sustainable practices and increase their competitive advantage. The Kayseri Model Factory has been carried out under the leadership of the Turkish Ministry of Industry and under the coordination of the Kayseri Chamber of Industry.

The objective of the project has been to:

  • Help the start-up of promising sustainable SMEs, through consultancy, training, financial support
  • Improve SMEs’ processes by training them on lean manufacturing techniques, optimization of productivity, energy efficiency, waste management
  • Enhance SMEs’ competitiveness on the international arena by accessing Industry 4.0 technologies
  • Eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions

Please click here to reach the results obtained with the trainings and consultancy provided by Kayseri Model Factory to the companies in the industry in 2021.

Kayseri 2050

he Abdullah Gül University, as a New Generation University focusing on Societal Impact, partners with international, national and local governments in order to positively impact its communities. AGU has therefore been, since 2015, a leading member of in the Municipality’s "Kayseri 2050" project.

This project aims at determining the city’s strategic roadmap and, among other topics, addressing urban planning issues, transportation systems, planning for climate change disasters, insuring that citizens can continue to reside in affordable housing, etc.

AGU’s contribution to the “Kayseri 2050” project was kicked off in 2015 during a joint search conference session, where Abdullah Gül University (AGU) Rector Prof. İhsan Sabuncuoğlu, announced that AGU will create societal benefit through education and research production.

AGU Rector Prof. İhsan Sabuncuoğlu stated that they aim to be a university turning education and research into societal benefit and for that reason AGU has roles and responsibilities in the future design dreamed for Kayseri.

Former Kayseri Mayor and current Kayseri Deputy Mehmet Özhaseki also made a presentation and talked about the projects launched in Kayseri.
Search Conferences were organized jointly by AGU and Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality on the "Kayseri in 2050" theme and started to create shared wisdom and participatory planning. Academics, university students, businessmen, representatives of media, non-governmental organizations and municipalities across the country attended.

 
 

AGU YOUTH FACTORY

Youth Factory is a learner focused youth center whose mission is training youth, helping them gain abilities about life, expanding their vision, giving them the chance to  acknowledge the international culture, encouraging them to be creative and enterprising, helping them be a member of the society and sharing the joy of the learning together and creating together.

AGU, differing from most academic institutions, places youth in the core of its design. Therefore, AGU focused on youth work and non-formal education and established a youth structure within the university, which is called the Youth Factory, and it is officially recognized by the Higher Education Council in Ankara as the Youth Work Research and Implementation Center. This structure aims not only to serve the students but also the wider public, especially the young people at local, national and international youth work field. AGU Youth Factory is a non-formal education resource center for the social and personal development of youth workers, youth leaders, youth trainers and young people. Due to its regulations and structure it ensures full access to all its activities. AGU Youth Factory provides different training courses about different topics related to the youth work field that are designed with non-formal education tools and approaches. 

For more information on the AGU Youth Factory and its projects, please visit http://youth.agu.edu.tr/

Children University

AGU CHILDREN UNIVERSITY aims to create conscious, qualified human resources, support the development of individuals, and raise individuals who are beneficial and happy to society. With the trainings to be held, it aims to create environments / opportunities that everyone can easily reach, to protect gifted children with its innovative, nationally and internationally valid programs, to carry out works that touch and contribute to the society with the awareness and understanding that it is a very important responsibility for all our children and our country.

AGU Children University organizes activities for gifted children, such as:

  • Discovery  of university at an early age
  • Benefitting from the university's facilities
  • Taking lessons with university lecturers
  • Scientific studies
  • Self-discovery
  • Advising families to contribute to their needs and personal development in different fields

For more information on AGU's Children University, please visit http://od.agu.edu.tr/cocuk-universitesi

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.

Y-GEN

AGU is one of the partners of this project. ‘Generation Y’s Virtual Guide to Skill Development and Personal Branding in Social Media’ is an EU-funded project launched in 2015. The main goal is to develop and design a virtual guide to employability, skill development and personal branding in social media for Generation Y job seekers.

Today, university students can acquire a variety of information and skills and graduate equipped with technical skills like computer literacy and language thanks to their academic lessons. However, while hiring, employers would also like to see a certain level of competence in behavioral skills such as leadership, teamwork and innovation, along with technical knowledge and experience.

Even though higher education institutions offer internship placements, employer introductions and career consultancy services for students to support their transition from education to work life, there still remains an urgent need to expand career education and define what is needed to get the right job and ways of getting there; especially for generation "Y" students who have different expectations and behavioral styles compared to previous generations.

Developing soft employability skills, such as self-awareness, leadership and conflict management alone, simply is not enough to land on the right job.  Generation Y’s fluency and comfort with technology, together with the rise of social networks, have reshaped how people engage with each other in the past decade. In response, job market recruiters quickly adapted to these changing conditions and started leveraging social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter, which are powerful tools to connect employers and job seekers. More and more of the initial background screening carried out by recruiters today, are now handled by social media, making it the greatest source used by job seekers to advertise their personal “brand” and to demonstrate that they have the required employability skills, proving they are the best fit. In light of this, students’ need to learn how to manage a strong personal brand and build an online profile along with developing their networking skills became inevitable. 

The main aim of this Project was to design a virtual guide to soft skill development and personal branding in social media for Generation Y job seekers. The premise of the Project stated that the better equipped the candidate with the necessary soft skills, the better the fit between the candidate and the organization would be and thus, the respective organization’s performance would be. This, in turn, was expected to benefit the collective EU organizations’ talent benchmark and business performance as well as decrease the levels of ineffective unemployment in the EU. 

The project was coordinated by Sabanci University with the following partner institutions: Novancia Business School from France, Universum from Sweden, Turk Kultur Vakfi and Abdullah Gul University from Turkey.

Within the scope of this project, a survey on social media use was conducted among students, employers and career services to understand the practices in the use of social media for job search and recruitment purposes by the target groups. The main finding of this survey was that, while 62% of employers were using social media as a recruitment tool, only 30% of students were using social media for their job searches. Another survey (both a qualitative and quantitative one) on the skills that employers are looking for in new graduates was designed and submitted to employers. The top 5 skills identified by the results of this survey were:

  • Reliability
  • Teamwork
  • A positive attitude
  • Communication skills
  • Responsibility

In line with those results, related resources were created and found to develop students' personal branding on social media and top 5 soft skills mentioned below. Those resources were combined on a platform and e-book as a Virtual Guide which is accessible for all students.

The main output of the project, “Generation Y’s Virtual Guide to Skill Development and Personal Branding in Social Media” was created for students and can be used by higher education organizations’ departments offering career development trainings as well.

By referring to this guide, students are able to:

a) understand changing world and business conditions,

b) learn the soft skills required by employers and how to develop them,

c) manage their own personal brand,

and d) effectively market themselves to employers on social media.

For more details please click here.

ANATOLIAN TIGRESSES MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME

As part of APCO’s 30th anniversary celebrations, and to demonstrate a commitment to the empowerment of young future leaders in Turkey, APCO’s Istanbul team created a mentorship program for young women from the Anatolian region to offer them opportunities and inspiration to further their career prospects.

The partnership between Abdullah Gul University (AGU) and APCO, initiated in 2014 and still ongoing, has resulted in the organization of several training and networking sessions where AGU students met with prominent CEOs, who provided valuable insights on their career trajectories and facilitated interactive workshops focusing on bolstering students’ ambitions and employability.

All participants ahve the opportunity to apply to APCO’s own mentorship program.

APCO’s Istanbul office runs and facilitates the program for the Tigresses mentorees, who will be expected to integrate, grow and excel with the rest of APCO’s team in Turkey.

Partnership Results At A Glance: 

  • Successfully launched the Tigresses mentorees program
  • Provided guidance, mentorship and inspiration to a great share of AGU female students
  • Filled a pipeline of future female leaders in Turkey
  • Created a collaborative partnership with AGU University

For more details click here.

VISIBLE/INVISIBLE SYRIAN MIGRANTS IN TURKEY: IDENTITIES AND CITIES IN FLUX

Project Details

This interdisciplinary project analyses the visible and invisible borders of Syrian migrants residing in urban areas in Turkey and aims to identify their vulnerabilities. In partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London, Abdullah Gül University, Gaziantep University and Gazi University, this interdisciplinary project is supported by the British Academy's Global Research Fund, with contributions from researchers in the fields of architecture, urban and regional planning, sociology, business and psychology.

Integrating migrants into urban areas is an urgent global challenge. Overall, the study aims to contribute to making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable in line with the UN 2030 goals. In line with this goal, the field studies within the scope of the project are planned to be carried out in Kayseri and Gaziantep, two industrial cities with different local environments. By sampling 10 families from different socio-economic backgrounds in each city and in-depth interviews with the adult members of these families, migrants' experiences of space, their contribution to employment, identity formation and access to urban resources will be analysed.

In the study, it is aimed to use various ethnographic research methods such as focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, field observations and case comparisons, and the information to be obtained in this way will constitute the main database. Research findings will be communicated to policy makers and other target audiences through panels, workshops and publications. The Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SDGG-ASAM), one of the leading organisations supporting Syrian migrants in Turkey, Chambers of Commerce and Industry and other relevant institutions and local organisations are supporting the project in data collection, interaction workshops, problem solving and dissemination activities. The progress of the project is regularly evaluated by all stakeholders through virtual meetings and the seminar aims for widespread dissemination.


Implementers
Prof. Dr. Gül Berna Özcan, Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Business and Management.
Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Varol, Gazi University, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Prof. Dr. Burak Asiliskender, Abdullah Gül University, Department of ArchitectureProf. Dr. Meltem Karadağ Gaziantep University, Department of SociologyDr. Sinan Akyüz Abdullah Gül University, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Project Assistants
Prof. Dr. Sümeyra Ayık (Teaching Turkish to Foreigners)
Dr Zehra Güngördü (City and Regional Planning)
Dr Nesrin Seef (Psychology)

Project website: https://citiesidentities.wordpress.com/

Project instagram address: https://www.instagram.com/city.identity/

Project twitter address: https://twitter.com/cityidentity

'Hold on to the Counselling Network in Combating Suicide' (I.M.D.A.T.) Project 'Social Media and Suicide' Training

Ceyda Cihan Aydoğdu, a research assistant in the Department of Psychology at Abdullah Gül University, has been selected as the Kayseri province coordinator of the 'Hold on to the Counselling Network in Combating Suicide' (I.M.D.A.T.) project, which is supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports within the scope of the Youth Projects Support Programme (2020-1) and implemented through the Mental Health Association.

Within the scope of the project, experts who have received training on topics such as therapy approaches to suicide, law and sociology related to suicide for nearly 1 year will carry out activities to prevent suicide in the society and psychosocial support to cases as project representatives in their provinces.

In the project, which will be carried out between 2020-2022, Ceyda Cihan Aydoğdu contributed to the project with her training on 'Social Media and Suicide' with the training support of academicians working in universities in our country.

AGU Talks Project

Abdullah Gül University carries out the "AGU Talks" project with different events annually. The aim of the project is Initiate in cross-sectoral dialogue about the SDGs. This project includes different topics and guests. Within the scope of the project, the leading names of the world of culture, art, sports, education and business from government intuitions, NGOs, and private sector are brought together with students. Thanks to AGU Talks, experienced people transfer their experiences to students, while providing the opportunity to create a network for students. With this project, people who look at the world from different angles are brought together with young people for the purpose of expanding the horizons of young people.

Some of the AGU Talks Events Posters:

You can reach the playlist of AGU Talks youtube broadcasts by clicking here.

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