POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Program Goals and Scope
The Political Science and Public Administration undergraduate program is designed to provide students the comprehension of the constantly changing world in terms of political, social and economic aspects through an international perspective. The program encapsulates a range from the macro level power relations to its micro repurcussions in everyday life. Political Science and Public Administration, as two closely related disciplines, focus on the critical analysis of political and administrative issues. The discipline of Political Science examines the processes by which resources and values are allocated and discussed in a political system. It elaborates concepts like power, legitimacy, social class, nation on the one hand, and formations like state, government, political parties and international organizations on the other. As for the core interest of the discipline of Public Administration, it is the processes by which both public decisions and policies are made and applied within administrative systems and especially within the state. In addition to the basic courses helping to specializing in the major fields, the program offers a substantial framework composed of a number of disciplines (law, economics, history, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies) by adopting an interdisciplinary perspective. Besides, since the academic staff perceives the principle of multiculturalism, democracy and globalisation as its fundamental values, our international students not only get acquianted to the university easily but also they realize their vital contribution to the consolidation of those values.
Graduates
The undergraduate program thus equips its students both with analytical tools and advanced knowledge in the field to join respected members of the business and the academic community. Program graduates get career opportunities in the ministeries, universities, media, civil society organizations and multinational corporations.
Learning Outcomes
To better prepare Political Science and Public Administration students for their professional careers it is important to equip them with the appropriate professional, technical and personal skills that they will utilize in their professional lives. The major sets of skills we aim to give our majors through their study are:
- Ability to examine the concepts and theories with scientific methods in the fields of Political Science and Public Administration,
- Ability to gather, interpret and evaluate data obtained from the research on Political Science and Public Administration,
- Ability to identify regional and global issues/ problems and to develop solutions based on evidence and research,
- Ability to evaluate critically the knowledge and skills obtained from Political Science and Public Administration,
- Ability to distinguish between classical and contemporary theories and evaluate the interactions among them.
- Ability to benefit from the other disciplines setting ground for Political Science (International Relations, Law, Economics, Sociology, Philosophy, etc.) and have a fundamental knowledge of them.
- By learning historical-political events that shaped the political systems, ability to understand and interpret the current political systems,
- Ability to inform affiliated personnel and institutions on the subjects related to Political Science and Public Administration; ability to convey opinions and offer solutions to issues by depending on qualitative and quantitative data in a written and spoken way.
- Ability to understand and interpret collective decision-making processes and how they reflect
- By utilizing at least one foreign language, ability to stay up-to-date about recent intellectual debates in the field and communicate their colleagues all around the world.
- Ability to express oneself clearly, effectively and persuasively in written and spoken languages,
- Habit of ethical thinking and conduct in the process of gathering, interpreting and spreading the research outputs.
- Ability to develop the knowledge and skills obtained throughout the program with the principle of lifelong learning.
- Ability to work with interdisciplinary teams.
Period of Study
The period of study for the program of Political Science and Public Administration is 4 years.