We are going to host our fifth session of the Turkey Higher Education Talks webinar series to discuss the findings of the British Council’s higher education baseline research, which was conducted on ‘Strengthening UK-Turkey Higher Education Partnerships’. Join our fifth session to connect with colleagues from both Turkey and the UK and share your experience.
The topic of the webinar is Strengthening UK-Turkey Higher Education Partnerships: Baseline Research Findings
Institutional partnerships in higher education between Turkey and the UK have a great potential. The baseline research provides some suggestions to strengthen and create new partnerships at institutional and national level.
In this session, experts from higher education institutions will discuss the current situation in Turkey-UK partnerships and try to answer the following questions:
- What are the main findings of the baseline research?
- What are the priority areas for higher education partnerships?
- What are the suggestions for improving conditions to establish institutional partnerships?
Join us on Thursday 21 October at 15.00 (TR time) – 13.00 (UK time). The webinar will be held in English and the panel members will answer your questions during the live session.
Register now
Speakers
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Fevzi Ünal, Vice Rector and Dean of Faculty of Engineering, MEF University
Mehmet Fevzi Unal is a Professor of Aero/Hydrodynamics and founding Vice Rector and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at MEF University. Prior to his role, he worked at Istanbul Technical University and served as Head of Aeronautical Engineering Department, Dean of the Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as Vice Rector in charge of research.
Dr. Unal has obtained his B.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering from the Istanbul Technical University in 1978, his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering are from the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. in 1981 and Lehigh University in 1985.
Dr. Unal has been active as a consultant for several industrial projects and as a researcher in various international projects, including working with Imperial College of Science and Technology in NATO funded projects; conducting research as a visiting professor at Yokohama National University, Japan from 1995 to 1996 as a fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. Performed research projects as a Fulbright Professor at Lehigh University, USA, from 1996 to 1997. Unal has been practicing active learning, via the Flipped approach, at MEF university since 2014.
Kevin Van Cauter, Principal Consultant Higher Education, British Council UK
Kevin is Principal Consultant Higher Education at the British Council, where he leads the British Council’s work in the areas of Transnational Education (TNE) and partnerships. He advised on and developed higher education strategies for the British Council in over 20 countries.
For over a decade Kevin has been regularly asked to author articles on UK TNE and student mobility and has presented at conferences on the subject all over the world. His research projects include the Impact of Transnational Education on Host countries (2014), Transnational Education Data collection systems: Awareness, Analysis and Action (2015) TNE: A classification framework and data collection guidelines (2017) and a review TNE/IPPM in 6 countries in sub–Saharan Africa (2019)
Kevin holds a BA and Masters in Public Administration from the Open University.
Prof. Rachel Brooks, Professor of Sociology, University of Surrey (Lead researcher of the baseline research)
Rachel Brooks is Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey, UK, and an executive editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education. She has published widely on numerous topics in the sociology of higher education, including international student mobility, student politics, and the experiences of students with caring responsibilities. In addition to her work on UK-Turkey higher education partnerships for the British Council, she is currently leading a large European Research Council-funded project (‘Eurostudents’) that is exploring the ways in which higher education students are understood across Europe. Her recent books include Education and Society: Places, Policies Processes and Materialities and Mobilities in Education.
Assoc. Prof. Armağan Erdoğan, Associate Professor in Higher Education Studies, Beykoz University (Turkey lead researcher of the baseline research)
Dr. Erdoğan is an Associate Professor in Higher Education Studies. Currently she works at Beykoz University at Istanbul. Her research interests are gender, internationalisation and quality in higher education. After being awarded a scholarship from the Council of Higher Education in Turkey, she received her postgraduate degree from the University of Warwick. She worked as the advisor to the president of the Turkish Council of Higher Education between 2008 and 2014 and head of the International Unit at the Council between 2008 and 2012. She was also the country coordinator of EduMAP, a Horizon 2020 project, and the coordinator of ‘Elite Dialogue’ projects which analyse Syrian university students and academics in Turkey.
Moderator: Ayşen Güven, Director Education, British Council Turkey
Ayşen Güven works as Director Education for the British Council in Turkey. She is responsible for establishing national and institutional collaboration for English, education and science between the United Kingdom and Turkey. Ayşen has been working intensively to improve the quality of English at a national level through major projects with the Turkish Higher Education Council, the Turkish Higher Education Quality Council.
Currently, Ayşen is the leading on the British Council’s English Together programme which is in partnership with the Turkish Ministry of National Education and the Sabanci Foundation aiming to improve the quality of English education in the public sector by setting up a national Continuing Professional Development programme for over 30,000 English language teachers in Turkey.
Previously, Ayşen worked at Bilkent University for 20 years as a teacher, trainer and manager responsible for designing and delivering courses for both students studying at pre-sessional and in-sessional courses. She was also responsible for designing and delivering the Certificate for English for Academic Purposes at Bilkent University. Aysen has been an active member of International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) here she was the Co-ordinator for the Special Interest Group for English for Specific Purposes for six years.