Academics
Credits: All Duke in Istanbul students are required to take four courses per semester. Each Duke course is valued at four credit hours. All courses are taught in English. Full academic credit with Duke grades is earned for the successfully completed courses. Non-Duke students are responsible for making arrangements in their home institutions for credit transfer.
Registration: Registration at Bogazici takes places one week prior to the beginning of the semester (second week of February for the Spring semester) and course selection can be made in Istanbul during this period.
Courses: Students on the Duke in Istanbul program are required to take the core course (varies by semester), a Turkish language course, and two electives of their choosing.
Duke is currently in the process of renumbering courses. The new course numbers listed will be effective in fall 2012. Course numbers in parentheses represent the old Duke course numbers.
Spring Core Course: Cognitive Science of Religion and Morality (PHIL 232A (132),ICS 224A (102G), RELIGION 281A (161U), TURKISH 232A (133)). Prof. Karanfil SOYHUN.
Fall Core Course (course title and number to be posted soon): History of late Ottoman and Modern Turkey (1839-2009). This course is a brief survey of the Modern Turkey, starting from the last century of the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. The short survey of introduction encompasses the periods of establishment, classical maturity and stagnation. The course will start with a brief discussion on the last century of the Ottoman Empire. The course will also cover the decline and inevitable fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish Republic literally from its ashes.Yavuz Selim KARAKIŞLA.
Turkish Course: All students are required to take a second mandatory course on Turkish Language and Culture, specifically designed for non-Turkish students at Bogazici University. This course comes in different levels, based on initial language competency of the students. Students with no or little prior knowledge of Turkish are placed in a beginning-level course.
Electives: The remaining two courses may be selected from any of the undergraduate subjects offered at the university. A full range of courses in the humanities, natural and social sciences, economics and business administration, as well as engineering are regularly offered at Bogazici University every year.
For a list of Bogazici courses that have been pre-approved by Duke, please click here. Please note that Bogazici offers many courses, and students are not limited to courses that appear on this list.
The reading materials and books used in the courses (in English), the manner in which the courses are taught and the faculty interact with the students, and the methods of evaluation are very much congruent with those of the U.S. colleges and universities.
STUDENT VOICES
"My favorite class was Architecture and Identity in 19th-century Istanbul because it was really more about the people, layout, and overall environment of Istanbul, and its complex multicultural history, than about individual buildings. If not for that class I do not think I would have left Istanbul with such a thorough and appreciative understanding of how it became the city of today. The weekly readings were especially fascinating, and the final research paper was extremely challenging but worthwhile."
-Duke in Istanbul student
