EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN AGRICULTURAL FACULTY

Education in Agricultural Faculty is composed of two main programmes: Agricultural Engineering and Landscape Architecture. Agricultural Engineering programme is executed by cooperation with 10 departments. These are as follows: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Machinery, Animal Science, Field crops, Dairy Tecnology, Farm Structures and Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, Plant Protection and Soil Science. Both in Agricultural Engineering and Landscape Architecture programme, the duration of education for undergraduate programmes is 4 years. In Agricultural Engineering program students join the mutual education for three years. After that student can select any department for the last year that each department offers exclusive programmes for it. The students who successfully complete all course and practical work in any undergraduate programme are awarded a B.Sc. degree as Agricultural engineer in the programme they have completed. Graduates of the Landscape Architecture department are entitled as landscape architects rather than agricultural engineers.

Faculty of Agriculture composing of 2 divisions and 11 departments is supported by 125 Prof. Dr., 39 Assoc. Prof. Dr., 14 Asst. Prof. Dr., 79 Research Assist. and 32 Specialist.

1. Academic Calendar

The academic year in the Agricultural Faculty is organised on a two-semester basis. The courses of undergraduate study programmes are therefore organised on a semester-basis too. Each semester lasts 14 weeks. In the fall semester, courses generally start in mid-September and in the spring semester in mid-February. A semester is considered as 70 working days without counting the official vacations (religious feasts, January 1st, April 23rd, May 19th, and October 29th).

2. The Examination System

There is not a central examination policy for the Agricultural Faculty as a whole.

The examination and assessment principles of the Agricultural Faculty are determined within the framework of "The Education and Training Instructions of Ankara University". In this respect, each subject has a mid-term examination during teaching period (between the 7th and 10th weeks of the semester) and a final examination without teaching period which takes place at the end of each semester, and lasts approximately for a month (mid-January for fall semester, beginning of June for spring semester). With the decision of the Faculty Board, excuse and/or additional final examinations can be available. The only prerequisite for the final examination of a given subject is the attendance of theoretical and practical courses at the percentages of 70 and 80, respectively.

The teaching staffs of a subject have the right to choose the appropriate form(s) of examination. In general, the examinations are written and/or oral. The oral examinations are taken place with or without practical works depending on the nature of the courses.

3. Evaluating of Teaching

Specific quality evaluation mechanisms to assess the quality of teaching in the Faculty include:

" Questionnaires, prepared by the University and answered by the students at the end of each semester.
" Suggestions and criticisms made by the representatives of students.
" Interviews with the managers of private management about the knowledge and skills of their employee who graduated from the Faculty in order to revise the curriculum.

Questionnaires, prepared by the University and answered by the students is an establishment procedure and cover all the teaching staff.

4. Information on the Turkish Higher Education System

The basic structure of the Turkish National Education system consists of four main stages as pre-school education, primary education, secondary education and higher education.

Pre-school education consists of non-compulsory programs for children from birth to the age of 72 months whereas primary education is a compulsory 8 year program for all children beginning from the age of 6. The secondary education system includes "General High Schools" and "Vocational and Technical High Schools". General High Schools offer programs lasting at least three years and preparing students for higher education. Within the category of General High Schools, the following sub categories exits: General High Schools, Foreign Language High Schools, Anatolian High Schools, Science High Schools, Anatolian Fine Arts High Schools and Anatolian Teacher Preparation High Schools. Vocational -Technical High Schools offer three -year programs (vocational schools) or four-year programs (technical schools). They prepare students for employment in various occupations, or for higher education. There are four main groups of high schools within this category : technical schools for boys, technical schools for girls, commerce and tourism schools, and religious education schools.

Higher education is defined as all post-secondary programs with duration of at least two years. The system consists of universities (state and foundation) and non-university institutions of higher education (police and military academics and colleges). Each university consists of faculties and four-year schools offering bachelor's level programs, the latter with a vocational emphasis, and two year vocational higher schools offering pre-bachelor's (associate's) level programs of a strictly vocational nature. Anadolu University in Eskişehir offers two-and four year programs through distance education. Lectures broadcast on television and contact hours are available.

The establishment of foundation universities is based on Law No.2547, the Law on Higher Education. They gain income from a foundation, tuition fees, and donations. They may receive state assistance from the Ministry of Finance provided that they meet certain requirements concerning their staff, admitted students, number of publications per faculty and scholarship awarded to their students.

Admission to higher education is based on a nationwide Student Selection Examination (ÖSS). The examination is held every year and is administered by the Student Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM). Candidates gain access to institutions of higher education based on their composite scores consisting of the scores on the selection examination as well as their high school grade point averages.

Beginning from the academic year 2002-2003, those who graduate from vocational-technical high schools have an opportunity to be placed in two-year vocational higher schools without taking any entrance examinations. Those who graduate from a two-year vocational higher school can continue their education in four- year programs, based on the quotas available and their scores on a vertical transfer examination.

Graduate- level programs consist of masters and doctoral programs, coordinated by graduate schools. Master's programs are specified as "with thesis" or "without thesis" programs. " With thesis" master programs consist of a specified course completion followed by a submission of a thesis whereas "without thesis" programs consist of completion of graduate courses and a term project. The duration of these programs is a minimum of two years. Access to doctoral programs requires a master's degree. Doctoral programs have duration of minimum of four years which consists of completion of courses, passing a doctoral qualifying examination, and preparing and defending a doctoral dissertation. Medical specialty training programs are equivalent to doctoral level programs and carried out within the faculties of medicine and the training hospitals.
The Higher Education System is regulated by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). Established in 1981, the Council regulates the institutions' activities concerning research, governance, planning and organization. Two- year vocational schools and departments are founded by the Council whereas universities, and institutions are established by the law.