Experience Report Exchange Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
E-mail: janouhoek@gmail.com
Study Program: Organization Studies
Exchange semester: fall semester 2014
Academic year: 3rd
Host University: Bilkent University
Country: Turkey
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Bilkent University is located in a specific part of the city center of Ankara. Ankara is a big city
and also the capital of Turkey. The city is not touristic and living there gave me the experience
of actually living in a Turkish city instead of in a touristic one. The “main part” (where a lot of
students live, and where you go out) of Ankara is Tunali/Kizilay. From this part, there is a bus
going to University every hour. When there is no traffic, it took me about 25 minutes to reach
Bilkent, and, when there is a lot of traffic, it sometimes took me about an hour.
The campus of Bilkent is huge. It is divided in a “main” campus and the “east” campus. There
are busses going from one part to the other. The dorms are both on the main and east
campus, as well as the classes. Most of the students have classes in either one or the other
part, which saves you a lot of traveling between main and east! The main campus looks
beautiful with a large fountain in the middle where people often relax. There are a lot of eating
facilities everywhere on campus with prices between ±1euro and ±8euro. They do not sell
alcohol anywhere so there are no bars on campus either. Bilkent offers sports facilities for all
the students for free. There is a big sports center and at least one smaller one on the main
campus. It is possible to do almost every sport and they also have a swimming pool.
As I mentioned before, Ankara is not a touristic city and there are not that many things to see.
Nevertheless, some things are definitely worth visiting! Kocetepe Mosque for example, is a
huge mosque next to the Kizilay area and really beautiful from the outside and inside. Other
places worth visiting are the castle of Ankara (which gives a nice view over the city) and
Anitkabir (mausoleum of Ataturk). Besides those sights, there are a lot of nice restaurants and
bars to visit!
The difference between Ankara and Tilburg is that Tilburg is a small student city while Ankara
is a huge city with not that many students on average. Also, everything is far apart so you
cannot just take your bike and go from one place to another.
Even though Bilkent is a huge university, there are not that many students (13000). Besides
the Turkish people, there are also international fulltime students and of course exchange
students.
For me personally, the study structure was really different from what I am used to. The
academic year is divided in two semesters and there are a lot of midterms in between and
final exams in the end. Also, they evaluate you on attendance and participation, which mostly
makes up around 30% of your final grade. I found this system quite useful because it
motivates you to go to class and participate; if you keep up with the subject, passing the
course or getting a good grade is not that hard. It is more about your motivation, than about
your final grade.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
I received the pre-arrival information from the host university quite late because something
went wrong with my application. Around the beginning of July everything regarding the
university was arranged.
For Turkey I could arrange a visa on the Internet. There is a website where you can print an
online visa and it costs around 15 euros.
The university arranged that some students were picking you up from the airport the weekend
before the introduction week started. They then brought you to campus. I was living in the city
so I went to the city center on my own.
In the first week, the introduction week, the ESN people helped you will all the problems you
had and also helped you to apply for the courses. Before arrival, there already was a
Facebook page where you could ask questions. For me there were no problems.
In the first week after my arrival, the introduction week took place. We got some basic
information about the campus and the university and classes of basic Turkish. The people
from the organization ESN arranged most activities and helped you out when needed. We did
not have a specific buddy.
It was possible to live on campus for free for all the exchange students. However, you had to
share a room with at least one other student. You could also choose to take a private room
but they were quite expensive. Girls and boys dorms were separated.
I applied for a private room before I came to Turkey but decided to live in the city center just
before my exchange started. The university did not arrange apartments in the city center, but
it was not that hard to arrange it on your own. I lived there with two other students and it was
cheaper than taking a private room on campus.
I rented my room in Tilburg to another student so that saved me some money to pay for
certain parts of my exchange. Also, I got a student loan.
Although, Turkey is on average much cheaper than the Netherlands, I spend much more
money. My money went to small things, like going out for diner a lot and paying for taxis. Most
of my money went to food, and leisure activities. I would advice other students to not spend
all your money on ordering food and going out because it is not that expensive but in the end
it costs you a lot of money, money you could spend on traveling and seeing parts of the
country.
I spend around 220 euros each month on the apartment (everything included). On food, I
spend around 400 euros each month. The transportation to university was for free, but taxis to
other places costs around 20 euros. I was lucky that I did not have to buy that many books, so
I spend only 20 euros on books. The rest of my money (around 300 euros) went to leisure
activities and traveling.
I arrived in Ankara at the 6th of September and the introduction week started on the 8th. The
actual courses started a week later, on the 15th and my last class was on the 30th of
December. We did not have any mid-term break, but there were some days we were free for
religious holidays. Around halfway the semester, we had some midterms, the dates depended
on your class but it was around the end of October until halfway of November. The final
exams were taking place at the beginning of January.
At campus, there was an international office and an exchange coordinator responsible for
exchange students. Sometimes we had some difficulties, because it was never clear when
the office was open. However, it was always possible to send an e-mail of call. About most of
the information provided by the international office I was satisfied. However, I still did not
receive my residence permit, and everyone had some trouble with it.
The ESN crew on Bilkent University arranged some leisure and social activities throughout
the semester. There were often parties in one specific bar and also some trips. I went on a
trip for a weekend to Antalya. Everything was organized by those students and it was not
expensive at all.
Most of the time, I hung out with exchange students; however, sometimes in class or after
class I also spend time with local students.
Throughout the semester I traveled to different places in Turkey. My roommates and I went
on two road trips and to several other places. In the end, I wished I traveled more but my
courses kept me quite occupied.
At the beginning of my exchange, I did not really experience a culture shock yet. Throughout
the semester, I started noticing some cultural differences. For example, Turkish people are
quite nationalistic and Dutch people not at all. Also, Dutch people are really down to earth and
direct, which sometimes can be insulting to other cultures. I expected the people to be a bit
friendlier and also I expected to see more religious aspects in Turkey. Overall, I liked the
culture but did not learn that much about it since communicating with Turkish people is quite
difficult. Except for students and a few exceptions, Turkish people do not speak any English.
However, I was able to communicate with everyone on university.
The exchange experience changed me in some ways. The biggest change for me was
realization of the cultural differences. In general, Dutch people are quite straightforward and
this behavior can be offensive sometimes. I am now more aware what I say around people
from other cultures.
I did make some good friends during exchange but not that many. If I would go on exchange
again I would try to make some more friends and meet up more with local people.
My best experience from the whole exchange period is that I lived in an unfamiliar city, in an
unfamiliar country with unfamiliar people. You have to do everything on your own and get a lot
of experience from it. I did not have any bad experiences.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
The courses at Bilkent University are offered in English. I do not know about all the courses,
but I only took courses given in English. I took the courses: War, Peace & Security – Conflict,
Violence, and Peace – Foreign Policy Analysis – Introduction to Middle East Politics – Basic
Turkish. After two weeks I dropped Turkish because I found it too hard and it costs a lot of
time. The other courses I took were really interesting and something totally different from the
courses I take in Tilburg. I would recommend any one of them if you are interested in
International Relations/Politics. Some of those courses are quite a lot of work but the
academic level is not really high. At Tilburg University it is mostly about giving insights about
what you learned. At Bilkent University the questions in the exams did not require a lot of
insights.
The teaching style is quite theoretical but requires some commitment. They expect you to
participate in class and do homework’s. For almost every course I had to write some
individual essays.
The relationship between students and teachers is similar than at Tilburg University. The only
difference between the universities is that the classes are much smaller at Bilkent, so every
teacher knows you by name.
In general, I am really happy about my achievements during my exchange. I took courses
from a different department and learned a lot of new stuff.
All the exams I had consisted of essay questions. Sometimes I even had the possibility to
choose between several questions, which one I wanted to answer.
The library is at the main campus and accessible for every student. There were some
computers and a lot of books which you could read. The other buildings on campus (at least
the one I visited) did not have any computers, except for one. Overall, there was always a
studying spot and computers available.
Description of my courses:
Course
War, Peace and
Security IR
BA
Conflict, Violence and
Peace
BA
Prerequisites
None
Exam
Written
ECTS
6
None
Homeexam
(essay
6
Comments
Interactive, homework,
individual paper, broad
topic
Two individual papers,
psychology oriented,
articles
Foreign Policy
Analysis
BA
Introduction to Middle
East Politics
BA
None
None
form)
Written +
midterms
Written +
midterm
6
Interesting, not
interactive, abstract
6
Diverse topics, broad
information, interesting,
interactive
I would definitely recommend an exchange period to every student. It is a nice learning
experience and you get to know yourself a bit better. I would recommend Bilkent University
for students who are interested in a bit different courses and who would like to experience
actually living in Turkey for a longer period.