Istanbul Kültür University (IKU) Preference Days were held between 17 July and 8 August 2023. Our team of academics, cultural ambassadors and administrative staff provided detailed information about professions, department preference, educational opportunities, academic programs, scholarship options and accommodation opportunities to prospective students and their families at the stands opened in all our campuses, including our Ataköy campus. In addition, the cafeteria, library, study rooms, lecture halls, classrooms, laboratories, and conference halls were toured.

Dr. Bahar Akıngüç Günver, IKU Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, gave an interview to Hürriyet Eğitim as a guest writer about her views that will guide the young people and their families who are preparing to choose a university.

“I learned a lot from our university as an academician”. In all this learning process, I had the opportunity to make the most intense and direct observations about the youth, the university ideals of the youth, their dreams about their futures, and the approach of families in this process, especially during the enrolment periods of universities.

'What do you want to be when you grow up?' Young people who have put their answers to this question in their childhood baggage, families tired of running a long marathon with them, rankings, scores, quotas, standard deviations, the correct answers taken by four false answers, the questions left unanswered… The times of youth when the inner voice that should come out of the high pitch for the future turns into sighs. Dialogues of enrolments between families and children, made on the fine line between 'you know' and 'I know', and turn into a power struggle.

Young people who have never thought about themselves, their desires and goals, and those who realize their child's expectations for the first time when their child faces the exam paper… Those who choose a department on behalf of their child, think, speak and even receive education for them. Of course, there are other examples as well. I met families who see university education as a life experience rather than a diploma as well, and those who sit down with their children and discuss all the pros and cons of the desicion process.

COUNSELING SUPPORT IS ALWAYS A PRIORITY

Today, there are many resources to support our young people in their university choices, especially YÖK Atlas, which YÖK works meticulously to guide university candidates in the right direction. Time has shown that the need for mentoring and high-quality information for young people and families to make the right decisions has never changed.

However, when I observe today, the situation is a bit different. Yes, nowadays, there are more fields and universities for young people to make a choice. They have more options than the previous generation. They can learn about a university in a different province in almost every detail through technology and have one-to-one contact with the professors there. This time, however, they have a much tougher challenge. Not with the system, not with choices, but with themselves. 'Why do I want to study at university?' and 'Where do I want to be in the future?' There are so many young people who come to this question without really thinking about it...

As parents and educators, we have important roles to play in the search for answers to these questions. We need to help young ones understand that university is a path to adulthood, starting from the stage of choice.

It is important to create a space for young people to think for themselves. But more important is the next step: taking responsibility. We need to teach them to take responsibility for both the decisions they make and the conclusions they reach on their intellectual journey while they are still in high school.

It is true that the future is full of options. However, we should be able to show them that freedom of choice is the biggest topic in human life that requires responsibility without getting lost in this universe of options or getting caught up in inertia.

And the role of universities. We are asked a myriad of questions from the families of prospective students regarding the opportunities offered to the students at the university in their process of researching universities. We do in fact answer many different questions on many different topics, including if students are given post-education job opportunities.

Universities by their very constitution are a place of experience.  However, no university can possibly promise to offer life neatly packed to its students . The university may lead the way, but the choice always lies with the students.  The university may provide the necessary expertise to specialize in a profession or field, but the journey lies with the individual.

Universities are a hub of diverse voices and thoughts.  Their very atmosphere defies norms and actively encourages to break out of patterns.  The best example of this characteristic is the phenomenon of students enrolling in a department and choosing to move to a different subject and get diplomas in a completely different or even two fields then they started with . Universities teach the individual about asset management.  In a university, the individual learns to use their mental, psychological and academic capital in the most efficient way.

 Studying at a university is a big investment. Nowadays, on social media we may come across satirical content, supposedly explaining in long lists what can be done with the share allocated to education.  Studying at a university is in itself an investment in the individual's self-worth and benefits the individual their entire life.

The invention of Prof. Dr. Nihal Sarıer, one of the academicians of Istanbul Kültür University (IKU) Department of Civil Engineering, named "A textile product containing phase change material and method of obtaining it" was accepted and registered by the UK Patent Office. It was stated that the nanocomposite products subject to the invention are functional textile products that have the potential to be used in clothing systems that can perform dynamic heat management, sensitive to temperature changes of the environment, tents, blankets, and textile products for protection from cold and hot environments, buildings, automotive, space industry, biomedical applications, temperature sensitive packaging and solar energy panels.

Talking about the importance of phase change in products, Prof. Dr. Sarıer explained the areas of use and patent processes. 

"Chemicals or Natural Materials Sensitive to Changes in Outdoor Temperatures"

Stating that we are faced with a phenomenon called heat management, Prof. Dr. Nihal Sarıer said, "As it is known, we want our thermal comfort to be provided both in our daily lives and in our clothes and in the periods we are in buildings when the weather is hot. Similarly, when the weather is cold, we do not want to feel cold, and we want to be in suitable conditions. For example, the clothes we use protect us to a certain extent from temperature changes in the external environment. However, what is mainly done here is protection with static still air and the materials there. We call this static protection. Phase change materials are a group of chemicals that have attracted the attention of researchers around the world since the 1960s. There are more than 500 types of these chemicals. We work with the organic ones. Some of them can be previously produced products. We synthesize some of them ourselves, as in this patent study. The properties of these products are natural materials or chemicals that are sensitive to changes in outdoor temperatures. For example, when the outdoor temperature rises, that is, when the temperature rises above 25 degrees, a chemical can absorb the heat in the environment and cool it. Therefore, the ambient temperature remains constant, that is, it does not heat up." 

"Our Thermal Comfort is Increasing Significantly"

Continuing their words, our academician said, "On the other hand, if the ambient temperature drops below 20 degrees, it radiates the heat it cooled before. Thus, the ambient temperature remains constant. If we consider this in a garment; in case the temperature rises or falls, our thermal comfort increases significantly in conditions where these materials are applied to clothing systems. The same is also the case for buildings. In buildings, we run air conditioners to keep warm in winter and to stay within the thermal comfort range in summer. We mainly make use of the building's own static insulation. Here, we utilize the insulation properties of concrete or similar materials. If coatings containing these phase-changing materials are applied to the interior or exterior surfaces of buildings, not only static thermal insulation is provided, but also dynamic heat management and ability is gained in case of sudden temperature changes. That is why such systems are called smart systems. If we turn only to textiles, they are also called smart textiles."

“Dynamic Heat Management in Sudden Temperature Changes”

Prof.  Dr.  Sarıer having explained that they synthesized phase-changing materials from vegetable oils, said, “We then encapsulated this synthesized material into fine fibres too small to be seen by sight, by utilising a method called electrospinning.  Then, we applied the material we call nanonet between the textile layers, fixed it and then examined the thermal quality of this creation.  And we have seen that in addition to the normal insulation capacity, the textile creation we have pioneered also performs dynamic heat management in case of sudden temperature changes.  In other words, when there is a sudden warming, the heat from the outside is being cooled.  When it cools down, it distributes the heat it gets from the outside.”.

“We Want It To Yield a Practical And Useful Result”

Expressing that they have been working on this subject since 2004, the IKU professor said, “ Prof.  Dr. Emel Önder Karaoğlu from Istanbul Technical University Department of Textile Engineering and I have been  working on this project.  When we start our work, we monitor and examine both American patents and other patents and studies in the world.  The worsening of global warming, the need for improvement in energy in relation to buildings, automobiles and our own clothing systems prompted us to undertake this project.  We want the product we pioneer or the scientific research we will produce to have a practical and useful result, especially for the benefit of Türkiye.  In this respect, we have filed national and international patent applications for the products we have produced in this project.  Upon filing these applications, we went onto publish our work as articles in various journals.  After the patent applications are filed, after a patent application number is obtained both in the national and international patent process, you now can both protect your work and get the right to publish an article in international journals.”.

“We Have Created a Support System”

Prof. Dr. Nihal Sarıer referring to the importance of this project for the good of the ecosystem and humanity, said, “This means that for example, we do not need to take energy from outside to maintain our thermal comfort in cold weather.  For example,chicken or fish products are delivered to a market by refrigerated transportation.  In a sudden power cut or due to any negligence, those products may be conserved at a unnecessarily high temperature than they should be stored for a while.  When we look at the product's own features and best by date, we do not see  any mistake here.  However, we see that the food is starting to go bad.  When such materials are used as packaging material in cold transportation due to sudden temperature change, we create a support system to protect food, medicine or vaccine from that sudden temperature change.”.

Assist. Prof. Sevim Karaalioğlu from the Department of Cartoon and Animation attended;

- The "I. International Communication, Digitalization and Society Symposium Visual Arts Exhibition" (10-12 May 2023),
- The "Second International Art Symposium Juried Group Exhibition" organized by Kocaeli University Faculty of Fine Arts (8-13 May 2023),
- The "Academy Global ARTacademy (Podgorica, Montenegro) 1st International Group Exhibition" organized by the Balkan Congress (2-6 July 2023),
- The "Art Adventure from Traditional to Contemporary (St. Petersburg)" organized by the Black Sea Congress (21-24 July 2023)

with their works.