INSTITUTIONAL SELF EVALUATION REPORT (ISER) 2020
Conclusion and Evaluation part of Institutional Self Evaluation Report 2020 is given in English below. Click here to access the full report (in Turkish).
CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION
April 6, 2021 is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Yaşar University. During this period, it determined the principles that she did not give up in order to be a successful higher education institution and has progressed to adopt strategic approaches in order to put these principles into practice. Again, in this period, it has positioned itself in its strategic plan covering the years 2020-2025 to fulfill its mission of contributing to science and society, which is the reason for its existence, around universal values.
Since the year 2020 is the end of Yaşar University’s 2015-2020 strategic plan period, it is the transition period to the implementation of the 2020-2025 strategic plan, which was started in 2019. Although the new term strategic plan is highly compatible with the IIER headings, the dissemination of the performance management system, the review of the outputs of the monitoring and evaluation processes with new metrics, and securing the processes with a relevant directive is a direction open to development.
Ensuring the quality assurance system with a directive in line with the current conditions and in line with the strategic planning and activities monitoring directive has been identified as another area open to development. In order to increase compliance with the targets for the 2020-2025 period, the current corporate policies should be reviewed and updated by taking into account the new normal after the Covid-19 global epidemic is another developmental direction. The need to update the strategic targets and monitoring metrics determined before the global epidemic on the axis of digital transformation has been identified as another open aspect.
The values of Yaşar University are defined as one of the most important components that hold all the stakeholders of the institution together, and it integrates with its employees and students around these values. The determined value system is determined and implemented by taking the contributions of the stakeholders with the belief in the common mind. These values not only increase the strength of the bond between the ecosystem in which the university is located, but also make Yaşar University a much more unique scientific institution. Human-orientedness is among our main principles that we consider while carrying out our work. Believing that science and the knowledge produced by science are the most important power, the effort to progress on a set of actions for the production, development and transformation of knowledge for the benefit of society without giving up ethical values in universal norms is evident.
At Yaşar University, it continues its investments in order to create suitable conditions for the encouragement of creativity, which it perceives as the fundamental element of innovation. In order to achieve this goal, it trains individuals who question their students to have critical thinking skills. Creating a multinational, multicultural and multidisciplinary research environment, thus taking place in global rankings, are among the priority goals.
In accordance with the mission of Yaşar University, it perceives providing access to science for its academic and administrative staff, students and all layers of society as a fundamental step and aims to contribute to the development of intellectual knowledge of its stakeholders by supporting teaching and research at the university. In addition, he feels responsible for education and information for public/civil/industrial organizations, other educational institutions and the public in general.
With the well-attended Search Conferences held in 2019, the vision and mission of our university were revised and a total of 30 concrete and measurable strategic targets were determined and consolidated to Yaşar University’s Strategic Planning studies for the period of 2020-2025 under five strategic objectives (Research and Innovation, Education, Internationalization, Social Contribution and Sustainability). These objectives are in full agreement with all five sections of this report. In order to monitor the level of achievement of strategic targets, performance metrics and criteria on the basis of years were determined and shared with all units. Action plans were made for each strategic goal and main activities were determined. Activity planning was made in order to harmonize the annual activities of the university units with the strategic goals and to monitor which strategic goal the activities serve. Thus, the activities of the university units, under the roof of the main activities, serving which strategic target and purpose can be monitored. As a result, the relationship between each activity of the University units and the vision has been established, and the Strategic Plan and the Quality Assurance System have been fully harmonized.
During the COVID 19 period, learning activities were carried out through online systems. The existence of the Open and Distance Learning Application and Research Center to develop open and distance learning environments, to enrich learning opportunities with educational technologies, to carry out and support the processes of design, presentation and evaluation of learning content provided the opportunity to carry out our work without interruption during this period. In this process, which we see as “Learning Experience Journey”, face-to-face, distance, blended and flipped education practices, which are accessible on and off campus, supported by educational technologies, encouraging effective and efficient learning and teaching for our stakeholders were implemented. It has succeeded to become one of the few universities that creates the “Digital Learning Ecosystem”, which is an important pillar of digital transformation in education.
During the Covid-19 pandemic that emerged at the beginning of 2020, Yaşar University switched to distance education without wasting time thanks to its strong and experienced infrastructure and started to offer uninterrupted education to its students. As a matter of fact, Yaşar University ranked fourth among the foundation universities that best manage the distance education process according to the results of the research carried out by the University Assestments & Research Laboratory (UNIAR) in May 2020 with eighteen thousand students studying at 163 universities (111 state and 52 foundations) across Turkey. Currently, in addition to improving the infrastructure opportunities to provide high-level education to our students, programs are organized to increase the distance learning experience by scanning the digital competencies of academicians.
Objective incentive and reward mechanisms have been put into effect to establish physical and technical infrastructure and financial resources for the R&D activities of the institution, to contribute and encourage the research to the socio-economic cultural fabric by defining the policy for the appropriate use of and to define the incentive method. Due to the increase in domestic R&D funds and expenditures, significant increases were realized in the number of scientific works and projects. Significant developments were recorded in the reporting period in the field of entrepreneurship and in addition to the Minerva Incubation Center, one Tekmer and two Entrepreneurship Centers were established off campus. In addition, YUTECH technology company of which we are a partner was established in Teknopark İzmir. A consortium was established with METU Technopark and Arçelik as the implementing organization of the BIGG program and supported by TUBITAK (THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF TÜRKİYE). Project Support Office, Information and Technology Transfer Office, commissions related to EU Central units (Project Evaluation Commission, Entrepreneurship Commission and FSMH Commission) effectively manage and monitor the PDCA translation at the operational level. The Quality Assurance Directive, the Strategic Planning and Monitoring Activities Directive, and the Quality Commission for Research and the Strategic Planning Working Group were formally established. All scientific and applied research activities are monitored and evaluated with the support of Information Technology Transfer Office (BTTO), Project Support Office (PDO) and EU Center, and suggestions for continuous improvement are submitted to the Quality Commission. Apart from these boards that serve as the sub-committee of Yaşar University’s Quality Commission, tactical level PDCA cycles are also included in the agenda at Senior Management meetings consisting of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Rector and Vice Rectors, the Secretary General and the Head of the Financial Affairs Department.
Since the year 2020 is the end of Yaşar University’s 2015-2020 strategic plan period, it is the transition period to the implementation of the 2020-2025 strategic plan, which was started in 2019. Although the new term strategic plan is highly compatible with the IIER headings, the dissemination of the performance management system, the review of the outputs of the monitoring and evaluation processes with new metrics, and securing the processes with a relevant directive is a direction open to development.
The assurance of the quality assurance system with a directive that is in line with the current conditions and in line with the strategic planning and activities monitoring directive has been identified as another area open to development. In order to increase compliance with the targets of the 2020-2025 period, the current corporate policies are reviewed and updated by taking into account the new normal after the Covid-19 global epidemic. The need to update the strategic targets and monitoring metrics determined before the global epidemic on the axis of digital transformation has been identified as another open aspect.
Especially with the effect of urbanization, universities are turning into a global campus more and more. Universities are becoming centers of regional ecosystems in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship. Information technologies are completely restructuring the ground on which universities move. Learning through information systems and blended learning models are the most obvious reflections. In the new period, a logarithmically increasing learning will take place and this learning will be strengthened by big data, open science and gamification techniques. The expectation in learning is more towards personalized content and modular education. Lifelong learning will further increase its importance. Among the main functions of the university of the future, research, talent and competence development will contribute more to the solution of social problems. Yaşar University will continue to strengthen and maintain its role in an ecosystem that shapes these trends.