From Our Rector

The history of İTÜ dates back to the Ottoman Empire period. ITÜ was established under the name of “Mühendishane-i Bahr-i Hümayun” in 1773 by Mustafa the Third with an aim to provide the first western-style engineering education in the Ottoman Empire. Along with the establishment of the Republic, engineering and architectural education was redesigned. Starting from 1928, engineering and architectural training continued at the School of Higher Engineering. In the Turkish Republic, the school trained the technical personnel who were in demand in the field of public works. In 1944, this school turned into İTÜ, and in 1946 it expanded with the establishment of the faculties, then all faculties were branched into departments, and diploma programs were developed. In all the fields of engineering and architecture, İTÜ has been training engineers and architects who respond to the needs of Turkey and are also internationally competent. At İTÜ, two-tier education began in the 1974-1975 academic year; thus, post-graduate education in several areas of expertise started to be provided with the establishment of 2-year graduate programs in addition to existing 4-year undergraduate programs. To this day, a large body of students is provided education through masters’ and Ph.D. programs delivered by seven institutes, which are Energy, Science, Social Sciences, Eurasia Earth Sciences, Informatics, Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Management and Aviation. Post-graduate education at İTÜ aims to educate researchers and young prospective faculty members whom Turkey needs.

İTÜ is a state university, which defines engineering and architecture professions in Turkey; provides a modern education and training environment to their students while protecting its traditional structure; and -thanks to its strong overseas relationships- educates its students so that they can compete not only in Turkey but also in the international field.

25 Engineering departments at İTÜ have successfully completed the accreditation process of the USA Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, as well as the department of architecture’s successful accreditation by the USA National Architectural Accrediting Board. With these achievements, which have proved that our departments provide quality education at the international standards, İTÜ has become the university that has the highest number of ABET accreditations. In addition to engineering and architecture programs, İTÜ School of Foreign Languages is accredited by Commission on English Language Program Accreditation, and Department of Landscape Architecture by the International Federation of Landscape Architects. In addition to these programs, programs of Maritime Faculty are also accredited.

Our university has an Education Policy, Research Policy, Management Policy, Social Contribution Policy and Internationalization Policy as well as the Quality Policy.

In 2016, İTÜ Coordination of Quality was established as a new step towards continuous improvement-development standpoint. Our developed Quality Management system establishes a ground for obtaining more successful results in education, research, management, social contribution, and internationalization activities. When the management approaches of the world’s leading universities are analyzed, the significance of maintaining quality management with a holistic perspective in line with the corporate facts and aims is obvious. This perspective is deemed to provide important advances for our university as an institution, which is approaching to its 250th anniversary.

Sincere thanks to all members of İTÜ who have contributed to our university’s journey towards quality…

Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu

Rector