Experience report
Name: Yasin Ince
E-mail: Yasinz.74@Live.nl
Exchange semester: Spring 2014
rd
Academic year: 3 of bachelor, second/last semester
Host University: Koç University
Country: Turkey
The beginning
My exchange didn’t start off as easy as I had hoped. Some technicalities regarding the admission
requirements led to the situation that I only received my acceptance letter a couple weeks before the
beginning of the semester. I had to arrange everything with only little time left and study for my re-sits
at the same time. Luckily the host university provided housing on campus, so I didn’t have to search
for my own place. To stay in the dorms you need to follow the application procedure, but in my case
because of the delay in my admittance I missed the deadline for this. I tried to get in contact with the
international office of the host university but they seemed to be very busy and it took more than one
week to receive a reply. This was however no problem as early on they appointed a mentor (local
student) that helped me with anything I needed. My mentor and all the other mentors were awesome.
You could reach them any time of the day, which made me feel much more comfortable and safe. The
host university also provided information on how to reach the university by cab and public transport
from both airports including the estimated costs. I was again lucky however that I had a relative living
in Istanbul who picked me up from the airport and where I stayed the night as I did not have any
information about my dorm room yet. The next day we called the university and my room was made
ready for me to check in. As I arrived at the campus I was surprised by how beautiful the campus
was.
The university
The university is located on a hilltop north from Istanbul with a beautiful view on the black sea.
It has two campuses (main and west) where you can stay in dorms. The main campus, as the name
indicates, is the main site and the west campus is on a 5-10 minute distance with the bus. I stayed at
the main campus and the greatest advantage was that you can reach your classes within 5 minutes.
The west campus however is newer and the rooms are often bigger. The most important facilities
however can be found at both campuses, but most of them are of course at the main one. Koç
University is one of Turkey’s most expensive private universities and has around 5000 students. The
university is definitely not shy about wanting to provide the best of the best for its students. Just to
name a few a facilities they provide: restaurants, café’s, a bakery, a supermarket, a bank, a tower with
a superb view, football field, a tennis court. a mini-golf court, an ice skating rink and a lot more. Not to
forget is that there is a health center with an ambulance. The doctors there will give you consultation
free of charge whenever needed. This was really convenient as I needed it regularly. My experience
is however that in Turkey they are not shy to prescribe medicines (even strong ones) for every little
thing. So it doesn’t hurt to check things twice and make sure the doctors understand your problem.
Medicine is cheap and easy to get as there is almost a pharmacy on every corner of the street.
The dorm rooms are also diverse. You can give your preference to a one, two, three or four person
room, whereas the single rooms are the most expensive. Besides the single room, the policy of the
university is that you will be placed with at least one local student to make sure you get a better
understanding of the culture of the country you’re living in. When you live in the dorms it is like you
live in a hotel. The service Koç University provides is sublime. The rooms and communal bathrooms
(exclusive bathrooms are also available) are cleaned regularly by the hard-working cleaners and the
dorm management is available 24/7 if there is a problem. Once I called that my heater was broke and
they sent a guy within ten minutes. Also nice about the campus is that it is off-limits for outsiders. That
way you can wander around the campus at night knowing you are safe. The downside to this is that
visitors you bring have to leave the campus by 11:00 PM. When you are on campus it feels like you
are in a totally different world than when you go down the hill to the city.
The metropolis Istanbul
To reach the center of Istanbul (Taksim) it can easily take 1,5 hour with public transportation. My
advice is to try to hitchhike from campus to the Haciosman or Maslak metro station. There are almost
always local students leaving campus with their cars who are okay with giving you a ride as most of
them pass named locations anyway. This way you’ll be able to reach the center within 50 minutes.
Once you are in the city it is huge, it is said to be the fifth-largest city in the world. It has many
historical places like the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace, but also a lot of big
shopping malls and modern areas like the Levent district where you will find Sapphire, one of the
tallest buildings of Europe. Also you should definitely visit the Grand Bazaar and Ortakoy to have a
nice view of the Bosphorus Bridge that connects Europe and Asia. If you are also interested in the
rest of Turkey I would advise you to go see Miniaturk. It is comparable to Madurodam in The Hague, a
miniature park that gives an impression of what to discover in Turkey. To enjoy the nightlife of
Istanbul, Istiklal Street in Taksim is the place to go, as it is the most crowded street of Istanbul and
alive 24/7. If you want to keep it closer to the campus the S.O.S. bar is frequently visited by Koç
students for a drink and is located on a 10min driving distance. In contrast to Tilburg, the possibilities
are unlimited. However is Istanbul there is a huge traffic problem so it is better to avoid busses and
travel by tram, metro and metro-busses if you don’t want to spend hours on the road.
Academics
The courses I took were International Law II, International Transport Law and Human Rights. I also
took 2 language courses being Russian (beginners) and Turkish (advanced). Compared to the
courses at Tilburg University I noticed that the subject matter of the courses are on a comparable
level with each other, but the exams were definitely easier. Also a great part of your grade is made
out of attendance, participation and sometimes assignments. The courses added a more international
aspect to my curriculum. I could definitely recommend International Law II and Human Rights as
these really discuss the theoretical matter in the light of actual events. International Transport Law is
a really specific course for those interested in transport law. Also the language courses were a lot
better than I expected. Especially Russian was on a high level. I didn’t expect to learn as much as I
did. You learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet and even future and past tense. The level of English of the
courses is on an academic level as is expected. In overall the education was satisfying. Personally I
didn’t like the system at all. In Tilburg you sometimes have an assignment or paper but mostly it’s just
one exam and that’s it. At the host university, the workload is not necessarily higher but it is
distributed evenly which made me experience my study as more intensive. Almost every week you’ll
need to submit an assignment and you need to attend all classes. As the assignments were not
always useful I don’t feel that this system achieves its purpose. I think that in the end the freedom to
choose how you want to study will benefit students more as they will need to develop skills like
planning to pass their courses and will need a lot of discipline. They will know better how to deal with
a big responsibility.
Social life
In the week before the classes started the university organized an introduction week. This is a nice
way of getting to know the local and exchange students. You’ll know how to find your way around
campus and how to make use of public transportation. Also the mentors will help you with your
residence permit and help you register your phone or buy a cheap Turkish phone. Throughout the
semester social activities were organized by the university, the mentors on their own, but also by the
exchange students themselves. There are also student organizations that organize parties all
students in Istanbul. Activities mostly consist of cultural dinners, trips in the country and parties. The
contact with the local and exchange students is great. Especially the mentors are joining a lot of
activities of the exchange students. During my stay I had a lot of time to travel. If you organize
everything well, you can almost take a weekend off every week. The best thing I did was rent a car
and doing a road trip from Antalya to Istanbul alongside the Aegean coast. If you have the money
anything is possible. Especially exchange students from America and Asia went left the country
almost every other weekend. Outside of Turkey, Iran seemed to be the most popular destination.
Living costs
Then about the money, the rent for the dorms was quite expensive so there was not much left from
my grant. I had to manage with the financial study aid from the government and some money I had
set aside. My expenses abroad were higher than in Tilburg. Mostly this is because of the activities you
do, so nothing strange there. On average (excluding trips) I think I spent around €500,- a month. I
have to say that if you consume alcohol - which I don’t - this will be a lot higher. According to my
fellow students alcohol is a lot more expensive than in the Netherlands. However everything else is so
much cheaper. The university restaurants even provide full dinner starting at €2,-. If you prepare food
together with other students it will be even cheaper plus more fun. In the end I didn’t spend a lot of the
money I set aside. I only spent it for an extra boat trip and for shopping just before I left Istanbul,
because clothes are also cheap. My advice would be to manage your money wisely and always keep
some aside as you will never know when an awesome event will pop up.
Culture
For me as I am of Turkish origin and I’ve already been to Turkey a couple of times I suppose I did not
really experience a culture shock. But after my exchange I could really separate those things that are
Dutch and which are Turkish. There was so much more to the Turkish culture as I thought I knew. So
in a way it was a new experience for me. What I learned from the Dutch culture was that people are
more disciplined than the Turkish people. There is a lot of certainty because the rules are clear and
everyone tends to adhere to them. Everything is just structured. In Turkey everything seems to be
more laidback and flexible. For example teachers will reply your e-mail even in the weekends or in the
middle of the nights, which is totally different from what we are used to in the Netherlands. However it
also has its disadvantages. Even the syllabi of your courses seem flexible which can cause some
confusion. The Turkish people are also more warm-hearted. It doesn’t matter if it is a cab driver or
someone on the street sometimes when talking to them you get the feeling like you have known them
for ages. Also drinking tea is very popular in Turkey. You’ll always see the local students drinking tea
when hanging out. This is one of the things I liked most. In the end I like the disciplined culture of the
Netherlands better. When you need something important it is better to have certainty in some cases.
The one thing I didn’t like about the host culture was the extremely crowded traffic. It maybe is not
really a cultural thing directly, but it could stem from their flexible culture and it seems that Turkish
men are really fond of having their own cars. Another aspect that I noticed was that the majority of the
people in Turkey are religious, but that this differed from district to district.
Personal development
The most instructive thing was meeting people from all over the world. The world is full of so many
different cultures and to hear and learn about the places people come from was really of great value.
Even within Turkey the people had so many different views on things while it is the same culture. Also
the events around the Gezi park protest in Istanbul led me to think about politics and different
ideologies in the world. This exchange made me feel like an international citizen and I learned to see
things in a more international perspective. This is an experience I won’t forget. It also made me see
the value of knowing more languages than only your mother tongue.
Tips
In conclusion I can say that I highly recommend everyone to go on exchange whatever it takes. It is
an experience different from any other and I think it is one of the most valuable in your life. Also I
recommend Koç University as it is close to one of the biggest cities in the world and in a country that
has so much history and an interesting culture. Also the university is in the top three of Turkey and the
campus is astonishingly beautiful. It is a big step, but I guarantee it’s one you won’t regret.