Foundation Development Directorate

FOUNDATIONS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORATE

Sabancı University Foundations Development Directorate;

  1. Academically;
    • Oversees the design and implementation of the university courses; frames the conceptual parameters of these courses; coordinates all university courses as regards the critical thinking procedures employed in all; makes sure the content and the way the courses are conducted are appropriate; evaluates possible new course offerings,
    • Ensures that courses are taught with the most up to date pedagogical approaches,
    • Ensures that courses develop students? critical thinking, reading, writing and problem solving skills with a view to have students get into the habit of using these skills, and makes sure that students acquaint with different fields of study so that they can discover their aptitudes and interests
  2. Administratively;
    • Coordinates with the academic and administrative units,
    • Communicates with the faculty delivering university courses,
    • Plans the requisite human resources and finances,
    • Make decisions about issues such as the learning objectives, student profiles to accept, and grant opportunities, together with the deans 

The Foundations Development Directorate was founded in 2003. Foundations Development Directorate coordinates The Foundation Development Program. Foundations Development Director runs the Program. Full and part-time faculty work within the directorate to deliver and coordinate the university courses, in addition to the administrative personnel. Faculty affiliated with university wide programs also contributes to the design and teaching of the university courses.

FOUNDATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Students seeking to study at Sabancı University, based on their University Placement Examination score, choose a faculty to enroll to? namely, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Faculty of Management?rather than a departmental program, with the exception of Industrial Engineering Program.. Students embark on their first year of study at Sabancı University in the Foundation Development Program. FDP constitutes the core of education at SU aiming to bring students with diverse backgrounds to a standard level of aptitude and knowledge, and thereby to have students consciously choose the program they want to study further.

The distinguished Foundation Development Program is based on two educational bases:   

  1. Foundations Development Year (FDY) develops English proficiency.
    1. Courses comprising 16-17 students in FDY
    2. Technology supported language education: course based and extracurricular
    3. Faculty meetings and tutorials with students within and without class
    4. School of Languages compiled English text books
    5. Turkish Communication Skills courses to develop the writing and research skills of students
  2. University courses provide students with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a wide range of academic fields and thereby help them make a conscious decision about the diploma program they will then choose. All students are required to take the following university courses:
    1. Freshmen University Courses: Students either completing or not required to take FDY commencing on their first year enroll automatically to university courses regardless of their faculty program placement. Those completing 101/191 take automatically 102/192 the following semester.  
    2. Humanity 2xx coded Major Works Courses: All students are required to take two of these courses upon completing course prerequisites and regardless of their faculty program.
    3. SPS 303 Law and Ethics: All students are required to take this course upon completing course prerequisites, regardless of their faculty program and when they choose to.

First Year University Courses

  • ENG 101-102 (Freshmen English): They are content based courses aiming to develop critical thinking, reading, writing, research and communication skills of students. These skills are also cultivated with a view to develop student awareness on contemporary issues.   
  • CIP 101 (Civic Involvement Projects): These are team projects that are required to take but based on voluntary work.  The objective is to grasp the concept of participatory democracy.  
  • HIST 191-192 (Principles of Ataturk and the History of the Turkish Revolution): This basic, comprehensive survey of the politics, economics and sociology of Turkish modernization begins with a review of the pressures building up on the Ottoman Empire, and the recurring confrontations between the conservative and the reform-minded wings of the ruling elite, through the 17th and 18th centuries, dovetailing into the challenges confronting the porte under Selim III and Mahmud II. The long drawn-out tragedy of the Turkish 19th century is examined.
  • MATH 101-102 (Calculus): Basic functions, their properties and applications to modeling, rate of change, limit, derivative and linear approximation, computational techniques, local and global extrema, applications to optimization problems, the definite integral, and anti-derivatives are taught.
  • NS 101-102 (Science of Nature): Science of Nature courses aim to selectively introduce some of the basic concepts of our knowledge of nature, to look at natural laws in their interconnectivity, and to initiate an experience of the way science operates, by sharing the method of scientific thinking with students. With this aim in view:

NS 101 investigates:  

  • Are we are alone in the universe?
  • Is antibiotic resistance a huge threat to humanity?

NS 102 investigates:

  • Are human beings causing the climate change?
  • Can we ever comprehend the workings of the human brain?
     
  • SPS 101-102 (Society and Humanity): SPS 101 provides an introduction to the study of society, culture, and politics in the pre-modern world. It consists of three ?modules.? In the first module, we focus on labor, production, exchange, and the transformation of nature in pre-modern societies. The second module investigates the institutions and patterns of politics, political institutions, social formations, inequalities & hierarchies in pre-modern societies. The third and final module explores the role of religion, art, science, and ideas. SPS 102 is an introduction to the society, culture, and politics of the modern world also consisting of three modules. The first module focuses on the role of religion, science and political ideologies in modern societies. The second module explores labor, production, exchange, and the transformation of nature under industrial capitalism. The final module investigates the institutions and patterns of modern life, with a dual focus on the modern state and on contentious politics.
  • TLL 101-102 (Turkish Language and Literature): TLL 101 covers literary texts written during or on the late Ottoman modernization period, i.e. roughly between 1870s and 1910s. The aim of the course is twofold. On the one hand, it helps students analyze and discuss how the Ottoman-Turkish modernization process is reflected in literature and how in turn literature affects this process. On the other hand, it aims to develop students' theoretical and practical skills in reading, discussing and interpreting literary texts.
    TLL 102 aims to analyze novels, short stories, plays, and poems of Turkish literature written in the 20th century, focusing on issues related to the modernization history of Turkey. The aim of the course is twofold: On the one hand, it aims to analyze and discuss how the Republican Turkish history is reflected in literature and how in turn literature affects this history, and on the other hand, it aims to develop students' theoretical and practical skills in reading, discussing and interpreting literary texts.
  • MJC 100 (Majors Informative Course): The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the degree and minor honor programs at SU and career opportunities offered by these programs. It will help students make a more informed choice about their future field of study and introduce opportunities that students may use during their undergraduate. The course emphasizes the interdisciplinarity of Sabancı University and the fact that each of our students can choose an individual route to graduation.
  • PROJ 102 (Project Course): Project 102 is designed to introduce students to academic research and to the practice of project work. Students get a chance to work on project implementation, report writing, presentation techniques and experience team communication.
  • HUM 2xx  (Major Works): These courses aim to introduce students to the fields of literature (drama, poetry, short story, novels), fine arts, architecture, history, music. Any level of familiarity will do to be able to register to these courses. These courses are an integral part of FDD and in addition to conveying a specific knowledge in the above mentioned areas and genres, these courses help develop the analytic and critical thinking and interpretation skills of students.  They enhance student awareness about the world at large and reveal the aptitudes and interests of students by exposing them to these rich and diverse fields of study.

These courses:

  1. Represent the dominant aesthetic and cultural forms of major eras of history
  2. Examine canonical literary, artistic, cultural productions
  3. Convey the universal, creative, profound, novel, and genuine meaning of major works of humanity
     
  • SPS 303 (Law and Ethics): This course aims to encourage students to reflect on the meaning of being an individual and a citizen. Certain fundamental questions, posed by the ancients but persisting in their relevance today, inform the structure of the course: What is the good life? How should we live? What does the life of a virtuous individual and citizen consist of? How can the likely conflicts between the two be resolved? Related to these, the course also explores the diverse relationships between law and ethics and addresses issues such as political authority, representation and consent, freedom, justice, and equality. This course aims to teach about the fundamental concepts inherent in contemporary politics and academy with a view to have students exercise critical thinking.   

What is outstanding about university courses is that all courses are designed as a single unit in that different subjects are approached from a comparative perspective allowing the contextualization of different epochs and subject areas. For instance, the thematic content of Turkish Language and Literature and Principles of Ataturk and the History of the Turkish Revolution are complementary: literary texts and socio-political events and ideas are examined in their simultaneity. The mathematics learned in Calculus in turn is used solving problems encountered in both biological and sociological sciences so that how mathematics shapes our life is illustrated. Humanity and Society discusses the conceptual effects of science and technology while Nature and Science focuses on scientific problems as well as the historical development of scientific ideas. 

Another significant feature of university courses is that they are designed independently from students? background; foundational concepts are presented to all students from all three faculties at once. The aim is to develop a fundamental knowledge base and skills requisite to complete following levels of study at the university.