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engineering programmes - approved by
YÖK - together with the Maritime Academy
of the State University of NewYork (SUNY)
from the USA.
Our SUNY programme has been affected
by the crisis. This is a fee-paid programme.
Our students study the first semester of the
freshmen year in our faculty. Then they
study in the USA until their junior year.
This is a mutually agreed system. The total
fee is about 70 thousand Dollars. Of course
the SUNY programme has been affected.
Fewer students have participated in this
programme.
The SUNY programme requires slightly
lower scores; but it is a very good pro-
gramme providing high quality education
and many advantages. They provide on
board opportunities. SUNY has a training
ship named Empire State. Normally, study-
ing in the US is more expensive; this pro-
gram, within this respect, is advantageous.
When they study there they can create busi-
ness networks and gain wider experience.
It’s a program with its advantages.
SeaNews: How many students do you
have at each program? How many
graduates will you have this year?
Prof.
Nil Güler:
This year we aren’t going to
open a programme of 100% English cur-
riculum. We are going to accept 95 students
for Maritime Transportation, 45 students for
Maritime Engineering. For SUNY, we are
going to accept 30 students for Maritime
Transportation and 30 students for Mari-
time Engineering. Every year, around 120
students graduate.
SeaNews:How long do your graduates
work on the sea? What is required to
keep them on the sea longer, in your
opinion?
Prof. Nil Güler:
No study has been made
so far on the duration of the work life of
our graduates on the sea. We lose contact
with the majority of our graduates after they
leave the school. We would like to receive
information from our graduates through the
graduate follow up system of our quality
coordination unit on our website. We place
great value on the quality system and we
try to get feed-back from our graduates.
But an average of 7 years of work at sea is
mentioned.
In order to keep our graduates longer
at the sea, the living and working condi-
tions at sea should be good. You know that
Maritime Labour Convention, MLC 2006
has been issued. That has to be complied
with. Working conditions caring for the
dignity and honor of maritime personnel
should be provided. High salaries can also
strengthen loyalty. A ship is a very interna-
tional, multi-lingual environment. Therefore
induction exercises to manage cultural varia-
tions would be rewarding as well. Language
is a very important issue.
SeaNews: What kind of projects do you
implement to help to encourage your
graduates for finding employment in
the international market?
Prof. Nil Güler:
We acknowledge the
facts. Turkish maritime fleet is not going to
satisfy the needs of employment in a short
while and as our students have a good qual-
ity education, we encourage them to open
to the international market. Within this
context, we‘ve contacted international firms.
We’ve invited them here and introduced
them our students. The most recent one was
Italian company Costa. We work hard on
this topic. We need support from our gov-
ernment. Our government should support us
too. This is what I get as a feed-back. The
quality and success of our students working
in foreign firms will be a huge reference
for us. And our students are aware of this
responsibility.
SeaNews: Considering the history as
well, as the oldest institution of mari-
time education, how would you evaluate
the progress in the maritime sector?
Prof. Nil Güler:
As the faculty of mari-
time, we cannot adopt a selfish attitude. Our
aim is to be supportive to all institutions of
maritime education while we improve our-
self. We have this responsibility awareness.
We want to develop and collaborate. The
fact that there are a number of maritime fac-
ulties in Turkey is criticized. In 2009, when
I was selected as the dean, we had a meet-
ing with faculties of 4-year programmes.
The purpose of that meeting was to identify
common issues and targets. Now we are
about 15 faculties with 4-year programmes.
That was a good start. We’ve been repeating
the meetings since then. It’s been useful to
carry through curriculum studies in com-
mon. We’re in such a structural process. The
number of faculties has increased above the
employment capacity of our country. Yes,
there are some quality problems. There is
shortage of academic staff. Even our faculty
Interview-Prof. Dr. Nil Güler
26
June 2013