GUIDELINES FOR WRITING THE EXPERIENCE REPORT
Please write this report in English
The student report will be published on the:
 Study Abroad website (under “Experiences” from partner universities)
 "Study Abroad Information" TiSEM Blackboard page (course code FEBSAI)
 TiSEM students’ exchange blog
 Liberal Arts and Sciences students’ blogs
Please let us know if you do not want your report to be published. If you please, certain parts
can also be taken out of the report before publication.
Name:
E-mail:
Study Program:
Exchange semester:
Academic year:
Host University:
Country:
Folkert Kooijman
folkert.k@gmail.com
Organisation Studies
Spring 2014
2013-2014
Bilkent University, Ankara
Turkey
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Ankara is a very big city and the people that are living there are kind and are very hospitable,
which is nice! The city itself however, is dull, big, crowded with a lot of traffic and high
buildings. The campus is located outside the city center, and there is a school bus that brings
you to university which goes every hour and takes depending on the traffic about 20-50
minutes. Before you enter the campus a security officer checks your student card, there are
quite some dorms where students and academic personnel live. I would not recommend living
there, but I’ll come back to that later. There is quite a good sports center on campus, which is
free for students. On campus you have several restaurants, with quite good food. Also very
cheap ones, for instance you can have a fixed lunch for 3 TL.
After arriving there is an introduction week, which is really good. You go to several places in
Turkey with all Erasmus and ESN people. Almost all your expenses that week are covered by
university.
The study structure is completely different from UvT. Almost all classes are mandatory to
participate in, e.g. you need to have 80% attendance. There are many cases, projects and
mid-terms so there is no stress for you final as it only counts for like 30% and you already
know the rest of your grade. Furthermore, the level of education can be compared to HBO, it’s
very easy and sometimes I was bored during class. I would recommend everybody to arrange
your schedule so you have Mondays or Fridays off, so you can travel!
To me there is not much special about Ankara, other than that the ministries are located in it
and that there is an Ataturk mausoleum. There are a couple of parks that are worth visiting
when you live there, and the night life is pretty good. There are a couple of discotheques that
are worth visiting, like The Passage, and If. In case you just want to have a drink in a bar,
ESN has contacts with bars which means you get quite some good discounts. We went quite
a lot to the ‘Bench’ and paid for example for 0.7 L beer 8 TL.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
I received the pre-arrival information from my host university very late, like 1,5 month before
departure, which was a little bit annoying because you need it in order to apply for your visa.
My advice is: just keep mailing and stalking the Host university ;).
Arranging my visa was not that big of a deal. You just go to Rotterdam, to the Turkish
consulate and apply for a student visa. It takes 2 weeks and then you can pick it up again. It
costs about 60 euro. I had some problems myself because I was told I could apply for a visa
only with my ID-card. This is not true, you need a passport.
When I arrived in Turkey I had to wait a bit, and then got picked up by ESN members. It was
really a shock when I arrived at the airport, no one spoke English, not even the customs. I
applied for a temporary dorm at campus. After arrival and some paper work someone brought
me to my dorm.
Everything was very well organized!
There was an introduction week, a campus tour with a reception, a tour around Ankara, a
couple of days visit to Cappadocia.
We did not have a mentor or buddy, but ESN organized everything. If you had any questions
you could just ask an ESN member, they were very helpful.
Housing
Bilkent University provides a dorm for free, you have to share the room with another student. I
only booked a temporary room because I did not feel like sharing my room, and I heard that
living in the city is much better. For example, there are so many security guys in the dorms,
cleaning personnel that clean your dorm, including moving all your stuff, it is not allowed for
men/women to be in each other’s room, alcohol is not allowed, if you want to go out to a bar
in the city you have to get the last bus at 1:30, or get a cab (which is affordable). I heard it
was quite easy to find an apartment in the city and that the bus from the city to campus is
reliable and comfy. I asked ESN members to help me find an apartment, they did and after 3
nights in the dorms, choosing my roommates I found an apartment 5 minutes from the bus
stop. We paid 1600 TL with the 4 of us, including the heating system. The bills for electricity
and water were like 250 TL. So monthly we paid about € 150,- each.
Living Costs
Unfortunately I don’t have a grant from DUO anymore, but I did received the Erasmus grant,
had a loan from DUO, used some of my savings and my parents helped me a bit.
As I mentioned before, I paid about € 150,- for my room in a nice apartment with a great
location, 5 minutes from Tunali street (where all good bars are located), and 2 minutes from
the bus stop. You can get much cheaper rooms or apartments, but with shitty locations. I
spend most money on traveling, out of all the weekends I was in Turkey I spend 4 weekends
in Ankara. It’s very cheap to travel by bus, I used to take a night bus to for example Istanbul,
Alanya, Antalya, Alanya, Fethiye, Eskeshir, Trabzon etc. I single ride from Ankara of about 8
hours costs around 50-70 TL (€ 17-24). You can get ho(s)tels in many places starting from 5
euro per night.
Alcohol is quite expensive, a can of 0.5 L is about 5 TL (€ 1,80).. It’s quite cheap to go out for
dinner, if you go to a normal restaurant you pay like 15 TL (5 euro), but you can also get it
much cheaper. Because I was on a budget, and I like to eat more or less healthy I cooked a
lot myself. There are plenty of grocery stores and almost everything is available.
Approximately I spend:
 Housing: € 750
 Food
€ 500
 Transport € 100 (getting cabs, cause I was lazy)
 Books
€ 50
 Miscellaneous € 2000
Academic Calendar
 Arrival date: 15 January, the introduction week started 1 day after my arrival
th
 First day of the semester is about the 24 of January
th
 Last day of classes were 14 of may
 Mid-term break? No
 After the last day of class the finals are scheduled. About 1,5 week after that they start, as
an exchange student you are allowed to do the finals earlier. I would really recommend to
do so, as you don’t have to study anyway to pass the courses and so you are finished
early and you can go travel.
 Any special events? There are parties at university, like spring break parties.
The International Office
The international office is located at campus, near the sports center. ESN members and the
international officer, Erkin Terhan is responsible for incoming exchange students. To me
everything was very well organized, and the information I received from the international
office was quite good.
Exchange promotion
I did not promote Tilburg University in a special activity. When talking to people and talking
about exchange periods I offered them to give them information about the UvT.
Social Activities
There are many parties organized by ESN members, which were very nice such. For
example, beer pong or karaoke parties. The contact with local students was not very intense
because I was always traveling and when I was in Ankara I was hanging out with Exchange
people.
Again, I would recommend everybody to travel as much as possible and see as much as
possible of this awesome country.
Culture and Language
Despite that I knew that no one speaks English outside the campus, I was absolutely stunned
that a city that looks so well developed no one speaks English. Turkish culture is very
different from the Dutch culture, but it also depends on where you are. For example, the black
sea region (north-east) is very poor and if you go to places that are not touristic locals really
appreciate you coming there and offer you free drinks. In the beginning I thought they were
just trying to sell me things, but they were just interested in where I came from and why I was
in their neighborhood.
There were quite some protests in Turkey during my stay, and I experienced tear gas. One
time I came out of the bus and the street was just white of tear gas in 5 seconds. I could not
go anywhere, so I just ran away, which was pretty shitty. There is a very strong protest
culture, and teachers urge students to go protesting. I would recommend not to do so as an
exchange student, as if you get caught you will get kicked out of the country. It is just
unbelievable that despite that strong police violence, people just keep on protesting. The mind
set to stand up for your rights is completely different than in Holland.
I really liked the hospitality which you don’t see Holland. For example, there was a small
restaurant on the opposite of the road of my apartment who always offered us free thee and
gave us cooking lessons. Try something like that in Tilburg!
During my stay in Bilkent University I followed a language course Basic Turkish 1, which was
very helpful during my stay. The basic of Turkish is easy to learn, so only after a couple of
weeks you already can have simple conversations. Furthermore, because only a hand full of
people speak English, I imagine that it’s quite hard to travel without knowing Turkish.
Personal Development
In the Netherlands there is quite a strong stigma on Turkish people. I learned that this is a
presupposition. Thus, I learned that things might not be as they seem to be. I also learned
better to work with people with different backgrounds which made me more flexible. For
example, I worked with Turkish students on projects, and wow that was an experience. They
just do things so different than Dutch people, but eventually it works out.
Maybe my stay in Turkey did not bring me a strong academic experience but I did have ‘the
cultural experience’. While traveling I got myself in stressful situations, for example my ticket
was not valid and there was no bus back, but I had a mid-term the next day. I learned to cope
with stress different, than I would before my stay in Turkey.
My best experience was a cultural one, I went to Trabzon, which is located in the black sea
region. I saw woman working on the lands and men drinking tea, I was absolutely stunned but
it was intriguing. My worst experience must have been one of my tear gas experiences.
I will never forget how helpful people in Turkey are, when I was traveling and needed to get a
bus to Didim I had to go from Aydin to the city center to a small bus terminal. I didn’t
understand any of it, despite that I understood their Turkish. One guy asked me what
languages other than English I spoke. A couple of minutes I found myself talking French with
a Turkish guy, who helped us buying tickets.
The most important lesson that I learned about myself is that I am able to adapt to new
situations far more easily than I ever expected. And I learned that many things are so relative,
and expectations can kill enjoyment.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
The courses are being taught in English, the level of English varies between teachers. For
example, there were exam questions that I just did not understand because if the crappy
English. But most of the time it gave no problems..
I took courses Marketing Management, Marketing Communication, International Business and
Basic Turkish I. Out of the four courses I would only really recommend Marketing
Management as this teacher was really good and was able to motivate me and my fellow
students. For my stay in Turkey the language course was really good, but the pace of it is
really slow, so from time to time it can be quite boring. Every class International Business
starts with discussing a case, which lasts for like 90 minutes. It starts with summarizing the
case and can be very boring, it depends on the content of the case however. Some cases
were quite interesting, but the way it was being taught is frustrating from time to time.
The academic level is not even close to Tilburg University, I think that is similar to HBO. The
teaching is rather practical and not very scientific or theoretical, which makes it sometimes
very easy.
I was taught in small classes of about 15-20 people. For almost all my courses we had
lectures, group work and case studies. For me it was quite difficult to work with my Turkish
classmates, the work pace is very different and sometimes it seemed they the lacked
motivation.
In general I am satisfied with my academic achievements during my exchange. I got three A’
s and one B, but I think the level of education is so much lower than in Tilburg University that I
can really be proud of it.
Exams
We had mid-terms, finals, presentations and case studies that counted for the final grade. So
already after a couple of weeks you know how hard the final will be. My finals only counted for
30% for my final grade, so I already knew whether I would pass the course or not.
Other
Students can easily access the library and the resources. It was difficult to figure out how to
print and recharge my credits, but ESN people are happy to help you.
There are computer available on campus, however I never used them other than for printing.
The Wi-Fi sucks however, you can only access it with 1 device. If you go to another building
and forget to log out, you can’t log in again, cause it keeps giving errors that you are already
logged in. This can be quite frustrating.
Description of Courses
Please list all courses you have taken at the partner university in the form below:
 Course title and code
 Course level (BA/MA)
 Prerequisites, if any
 Form of exam
 ECTS credits you have obtained in total:
 Comments: Relevance, Difficult/easy, Practical/theoretical, Enrolment problems
Example
Course
Prerequisites
Exam
ECTS
Comments
Turk 111,
Basic Turkish I
None
Written
6
Mid-term 30, 3
presentations 10%
each, final 40%
Practical, not very
difficult to pass as
everyone got an A for
the presentations
MAN 509,
International business
BsC
Written
6
MBA 532,
Marketing Management
BsC
Written
6
MBA 558,
Marketing
Communication
BsC
Written
6
Mid-term, Final,
Individual project, and
case reviews.
Great course!
Individual case
assignments, group
case assignments,
group project.
Individual essay
assignments, group
project, final.
Tips for the future students:
I would definitely recommend an exchange period, I learned a lot, met awesome people
learned a lot about myself, Turkey and a bit from my courses. As I already pointed out,
Ankara is just a dull city, but the university seems to be very good. It is definitely
completely different comparing to Tilburg University. Because Bilkent University is
centrally located in Turkey, it is easy to travel every weekend to different places.
There is not something in particular that prospective students should not forget, other
than personal essentials such as medicines. You can get everything in Ankara, so if you
forget something, it is no big deal. However, in the beginning of spring it is hard to get
sunscreen, and it is very expensive like twice the price in Holland. I was absolutely
stunned about the price of it, also in Ankara itself. So, take some with you.
Just some pictures, in order: Getting tear gassed, visiting Salt Lake and Istanbul, shots
after getting tear gassed, celebrating carnival, hanging in the air in Fethiye and getting
celebrating with ESN!