POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (ENGLISH)
About the Program
Political Science and International Relations is a field of social sciences that examines any form of political relations. It investigates the issues that emerge as an outcome of human coexistence in political orders by using concepts like power, system, state, government, and others. It analyses and compares who gets what why and how in the field politics. It tries to uncover actors’ behavioral patterns and find out regularities among these.
Opportunities Provided to Students
- Opportunity to learn foreign language (Free)
- Opportunity to do a Minor (During normal education and an additional year with scholarship)
- Opportunity to do a Double Major (During normal education and an additional year with scholarship)
- Opportunity of foreign education through international exchange programs (1 or 2 semester)
- Opportunity to continue with MA programs after graduation
Career Opportunities
Graduates of the Department of Political Science and International Relations are employed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, strategic research centers, national and international public and private organizations. Graduate candidates obtain the formation suitable for starting a career in multinational companies, the European Commission, the media, as well as in private companies. In addition, they also have the opportunity to have an academic career in universities, research centers and similar institutions.
Program Objectives & Goals
Objectives
- Department of Political Science and International Relations aims to educate individuals who are knowledgeable about Turkish issues, know foreign languages, embrace critical thinking methods, have entrepreneurial spirit, adopt ethical values, as well as innovative and cooperative.
- Beyond transferring the already available approaches of the Political Science, the department seeks to become an institution that produces universal, understandable, sharable, comparable, competitive, and original knowledge and to encourage its students to be active participants in this productive process.
- The Department aims to develop an original and acceptable attitude in analyzing political phenomena. Its aim is to teach the already existing approaches of the Political Science literature to its students, make its students know about the literature but also train them as social actors who hold their own positions, and include them into the systems of knowledge production.
- The Department aims to educate students who are deeply aware of the main approaches of the Political Science and interpret the international system as a whole.
- The department aims to educate students who know how to conduct research in the field of Political Science, who are aware of how to distinguish between valid and invalid information produced in the field, and who can present this research as a report or original work.
- The Department aims to educate students to follow, question, understand and analyze contemporary political, economic, social, cultural and security related developments by considering the relations between events and phenomena that occur local, national, regional, and international scale in a transforming world.
Program Learning Outcomes
KNOWLEDGE
- Learn to the foundational knowledge about the mechanism of international system, fundamental concepts and features, and sub-topics of international relation discipline
- Analyze the developments occurring in the world political history under the cause and effect relation
- Learn to examine theories of international relations and to look international developments from a theoretical perspective
- Analyze the formation and operation of international and regional organizations, and their impact on world politics
- Learn to the essential conceptions and theories of other disciplines including economy, sociology, political science and public finance
- Comprehensively analyze the thoughts of philosophers/thinkers who built the foundations of political science and examine the contributions of these philosophical thoughts to the discipline of Political Science and International Relations
COMPETENCE
- Improve foreign language skills
- Learn to theoretical and methodological thinking and look at phenomena from this perspective
- Comparatively analyze the social developments and conditions
- Learn to fundamental principles and subjects of International Law
- Learn to fundamental principles and functioning of Domestic Law
- Analyze the problems of International Security and theoretical approaches to this field
- Comparatively and theoretically examine the developments occurred within international system
- Improve the analytical thinking ability regarding international developments
- Possess basic computer skills
- Individually possess the ability of planning, conducting and putting down on paper a scientific study
SKILL
- Comprehensively analyze Turkish foreign policy within cause-and-effect relation
- Analyze the theoretical approaches to foreign policy analysis and the functioning of the decision-making process
- Chronologically analyze the Turkish political life from a historical perspective
- Analyze the causes of intrastate conflicts and resolution models with exemplification
- Learn to the foundational knowledge about the mechanism of international system, fundamental concepts and features, and sub-topics of international relation discipline
- Analyze the developments occurring in the world political history under the cause and effect relation
- Improve foreign language skills
- Comprehensively analyze Turkish foreign policy within cause-and-effect relation
- Analyze the theoretical approaches to foreign policy analysis and the functioning of the decision-making process
- Learn to theoretical and methodological thinking and look at phenomena from this perspective
- Comparatively analyze the social developments and conditions
- Learn to fundamental principles and subjects of International Law
- Learn to examine theories of international relations and to look international developments from a theoretical perspective
- Chronologically analyze the Turkish political life from a historical perspective
- Learn to fundamental principles and functioning of Domestic Law
- Analyze the formation and operation of international and regional organizations, and their impact on world politics
- Analyze the causes of intrastate conflicts and resolution models with exemplification
- Analyze the problems of International Security and theoretical approaches to this field
- Comparatively and theoretically examine the developments occurred within international system
- Improve the analytical thinking ability regarding international developments
- Learn to the essential conceptions and theories of other disciplines including economy, sociology, political science and public finance
- Comprehensively analyze the thoughts of philosophers/thinkers who built the foundations of political science and examine the contributions of these philosophical thoughts to the discipline of Political Science and International Relations
- Possess basic computer skills
- Individually possess the ability of planning, conducting and putting down on paper a scientific study
| Subject-Specific Qualifications | Programme Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
| KNOWLEDGE | |
| Theoretical / Conceptual | |
|
|
| SKILL | |
| Cognitive / Pratical | |
|
|
| COMPETENCE | |
| Competence to Work Independently and Take Responsibility | |
|
|
| Learning Competence | |
|
|
| Communication and Social Competence | |
|
|
| Field Specific Competence | |
|
|
Relationship Between Programme Learning Outcomes and Objectives
| KNOWLEDGE | OBJECTIVE | T | % | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theoretical / Conceptual | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | |||
| 1 | Learn to the foundational knowledge about the mechanism of international system, fundamental concepts and features, and sub-topics of international relation discipline | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 2 | Analyze the developments occurring in the world political history under the cause and effect relation | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 3 | Learn to examine theories of international relations and to look international developments from a theoretical perspective | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 4 | Analyze the formation and operation of international and regional organizations, and their impact on world politics | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 5 | Learn to the essential conceptions and theories of other disciplines including economy, sociology, political science and public finance | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 6 | Comprehensively analyze the thoughts of philosophers/thinkers who built the foundations of political science and examine the contributions of these philosophical thoughts to the discipline of Political Science and International Relations | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| COMPETENCE | OBJECTIVE | T | % | ||||||
| Field Specific Competence | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | |||
| 1 | Improve foreign language skills | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 2 | Learn to fundamental principles and subjects of International Law | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 3 M ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 28 | %93,33 |
| 3 | Learn to fundamental principles and functioning of Domestic Law | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 4 H ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 29 | %96,67 |
| 4 | Analyze the problems of International Security and theoretical approaches to this field | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| Learning Competence | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | |||
| 1 | Learn to theoretical and methodological thinking and look at phenomena from this perspective | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 4 H ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 29 | %96,67 |
| 2 | Comparatively and theoretically examine the developments occurred within international system | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 3 M ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 28 | %93,33 |
| 3 | Improve the analytical thinking ability regarding international developments | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| Competence to Work Independently and Take Responsibility | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | |||
| 1 | Comparatively analyze the social developments and conditions | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 4 H ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 29 | %96,67 |
| 2 | Individually possess the ability of planning, conducting and putting down on paper a scientific study | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| Communication and Social Competence | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | |||
| 1 | Possess basic computer skills | 4 H ✔ | 3 M ✔ | 3 M ✔ | 3 M ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 3 M ✔ | 21 | %70,00 |
| SKILL | OBJECTIVE | T | % | ||||||
| Cognitive / Pratical | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O5 | O6 | |||
| 1 | Comprehensively analyze Turkish foreign policy within cause-and-effect relation | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 2 | Analyze the theoretical approaches to foreign policy analysis and the functioning of the decision-making process | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 3 | Chronologically analyze the Turkish political life from a historical perspective | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| 4 | Analyze the causes of intrastate conflicts and resolution models with exemplification | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 5 VH ✔ | 30 | %100,00 |
| NUMBER OF PROGRAMME LEARNING OUTCOMES (20) | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | - | - | |
| WEIGHT | 99 | 98 | 98 | 98 | 93 | 98 | - | - | |
| PERCENTAGE | %99,00 | %98,00 | %98,00 | %98,00 | %93,00 | %98,00 | - | - | |
| CONTRIBUTION LEVEL - MEDIUM [3] (M) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| CONTRIBUTION LEVEL - HIGH [4] (H) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |||
| CONTRIBUTION LEVEL - VERY HIGH [5] (VH) | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 15 | 19 | |||
* T: Total, %: Percentage
O1 — Department of Political Science and International Relations aims to educate individuals who are knowledgeable about Turkish issues, know foreign languages, embrace critical thinking methods, have entrepreneurial spirit, adopt ethical values, as well as innovative and cooperative.
O2 — Beyond transferring the already available approaches of the Political Science, the department seeks to become an institution that produces universal, understandable, sharable, comparable, competitive, and original knowledge and to encourage its students to be active participants in this productive process.
O3 — The Department aims to develop an original and acceptable attitude in analyzing political phenomena. Its aim is to teach the already existing approaches of the Political Science literature to its students, make its students know about the literature but also train them as social actors who hold their own positions, and include them into the systems of knowledge production.
O4 — The Department aims to educate students who are deeply aware of the main approaches of the Political Science and interpret the international system as a whole.
O5 — The department aims to educate students who know how to conduct research in the field of Political Science, who are aware of how to distinguish between valid and invalid information produced in the field, and who can present this research as a report or original work.
O6 — The Department aims to educate students to follow, question, understand and analyze contemporary political, economic, social, cultural and security related developments by considering the relations between events and phenomena that occur local, national, regional, and international scale in a transforming world.
Teaching Methods
The most frequently used Instructional Methods of the educational programs of Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University are given below.
- Expression
- Question-Answer
- Discussion
- Exercise and Practice
- Presentation
- Guided Practice
- Role Playing
- Group Study
- Simulation
- Brain Storming
- Six Hat
- Case Study
- Experiment - Test / Lab/ Workshop / Field Practice
- Self study
- Problem Solving
- Project Based Learning (Including Field Work)
Assessment Methods
The most frequently used Evaluation Methods of the educational programs of Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University are given below.
- Testing (Essay / Tests: True-Falls, multiple-choice, short answer, matching)
- Oral Exam
- Homework
- Project / Design
- Portfolio
- Performance Assignment ( Lab / Workshop / Field Work / Seminar / Presentation / Completion Study / Thesis
Degree and Level Awarded
Political Science and International Relations Department is a Bachelor's Degree Programme with 240 ECTS Credits meets the minimum level (cycle) requirements, in terms of ECTS Credits and level descriptors, of the first cycle degree qualifications of the Overarching Framework of European Qualifications Framework of HE(QF-EHEA) as well as the 6th levels of qualifications of the both the Turkish Qualifications Framework for HE (TYYÇ, NQF-HETR) and the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF-LLL)in terms of the later.
Students, upon successfully completing this study programme is awarded the qualification of BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Admission Requirements
Admission of national students to the Political Science and International Relations Department programme is allowed through the nationally centralised "Student Selection Examination" (ÖSS) conducted by the "Student Selection and Placement Centre" (ÖSYM). For further information please visit "Undergraduate Admissions" and Registration Procedures" of the (ÖSYM).
Within the limits of the students exhange programs our university has signed, foreign students can be admitted to the programme upon an evaluation of their applications. For further and detailed information please visit the "General Admission Requirements and Registration Procedures" of our institution.
Graduation Requirements
The degree is awarded to students who successfully completes a minimum of 240 ECTS from the course units of the programme with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.00 out of 4.00.
Recognition of Prior Learning
Procedures to recognise prior learning (RPL), including non-formal and informal learning, is in an early stage of development in Turkey and there is no a comprehensive and enabling legislative framework at the national level in place yet. However, within the institutional autonomy respected there are some implementations at the institutional level for allocating credits towards exemption from some programme requirements on the basis of RPL. This is particularly a widespread exercise implemented in cases that students, having a certain level of knowledge, skills and competencies in relation to fields such as foreign languages and computer use, prior to admission to the university, are subjected to an examination and if they are found successful to a certain degree required by the programme they have been admitted to, they are exempted from the relevant course units of the course programme. RPL is also practiced for students who wish to transfer their studies to the equal or an upper levels at an another institution including those from abroad in the same or similar fields. In such cases, students, having received some course units in a previous programme they had studied and having been successful, may be exempted from the same or similar course units of the programmes they are admitted to upon the approval the adaptation committees of the programmes.
Such procedures of recognition are also used comprehensively in practice at our university. The general arrangements for the recognition ofsuch implementations are outlined in the relevant section of our Education and Examination Regulations, Rules & Regulations for Graduate Programmes and that of Regulations for Lateral Transfer of Students.
Employment Opportunities
Graduates of the Political Science and International Relations Department are employed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in national and international public and private institutions. Holders of an MA diplome are enrolled in multinational companies, the European Commission, and themedia. They can also start a career in private companies. They have also an opportunity to work in universities, research centers and similar institutions within the framework of an academic carreer.
Access to Further Studies
The students graduating from this program may apply to second cycle programs.