About Turkish Studies (MATS) Program
The MA program Turkish Studies aims to train the next generation of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners and equip its graduate student with necessary skills to analyze, understand, evaluate, and make policies in key areas including foreign and environment policies as well as, energy, urbanization, health, and welfare.
The graduate curriculum couples solid theoretical knowledge about Turkish politics with rigorous training on state-of-art methodologies that have become increasingly important in today's world and in the making and application of public policies. With a highly flexible curriculum, which capitalizes on the intellectual and scholarly resources available at one of Turkey's leading private universities, the Turkish Studies MA program offers its students a broad range of courses in History, Political Science, Economics, Conflict Resolution, European Studies, and Cultural Studies.
The core component of the program include a rigorous social science research methods training; several tracks of specialization; a policy internship program and research assistantship opportunities in renowned centers of Sabancı University, including Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies at Columbia University.
There are several possibilities concerning the career prospects of students enrolled in the graduate degree program in Turkish Studies. Graduates of the program will be competitive candidates for Ph.D. programs in various fields of the Humanities and Social Sciences (as already borne out by our alumni placement record). The MA degree in Turkish Studies will also enhance the career prospects of students for positions in the public sector (policy-making, bureaucratic, and diplomatic service), private sector (international business, media, tourism, etc.), and national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The normal duration of the program is a four semesters. This does not include our seven-week summer terms; nor does it cover term-leaves of absence. Students may have choose between two tracks: thesis and non-thesis. In the thesis track, students have to take and pass a minimum of nine credit courses, plus a non-credit pro-seminar, four academic development courses, an internship and a non-credit MA thesis course. Program Requirements may vary according to the year of first enrollment, see MATS degree requirements (thesis). Within the framework of the said MA Thesis course, they are expected to research and write an MA thesis of around 70 pages on a previously submitted and approved topic. In the non-thesis track (normally three semesters-long), a minimum of 13 credit courses plus a non-credit pro-seminar, three academic development courses, an internship, and an MA Project are required. Program Requirements may vary according to the year of first enrollment, see MATS degree requirements (non-thesis). Continuing students may examine their program requirements on Student Resources website based on their year of first enrollment to the program.
Scholarships usually cover the normal program duration (of four semesters). In the thesis track, any student who has successfully completed his/her coursework within four semesters, but who needs additional thesis completion time, may, upon applying to the Graduate School of Social Sciences, be granted a fifth semester without any scholarship, but subject to the payment of a smaller retainer’s fee instead of normal tuition.
For more information, please contact Mehmet Kuru: mehmet.kuru@sabanciuniv.edu