“Our Target Is A Global University”

Sabancı University is a project which initiated by the Sabancı Foundation and on which it has to date spent US$610 million. Güler Sabancı, who is chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, is satisfied with the level they have reached today. Her target is “to become a more international university.”

Güler Sabancı is the chair of the Board of Trustees at Sabancı University… She has been involved with the university project since 1994 when it was still at the concept stage. She still becomes excited when she talks about the results of the search conferences they held before establishing the university in order to find an answer to the question of “What should the ideal university of the 21st century be like?” She proudly relates how 17 percent of graduates complete doctorates and win scholarships from the most prestigious universities in the world. The Sabancı Foundation has to date invested US$610 million in the university. As of today, the university covers 80 percent of its expenditure from revenue from students and research. Güler Sabancı answered our questions about the university and the different model it represents.

What did you do when you first headed the Sabancı University project?
The first thing I did was to initiate research on this subject. I spoke with a lot of very eminent people, such as İhsan Doğramacı and Suna Kıraç, who had worked on universities. At that time we thought of holding a “search conference” like we used in our companies. We decided to hold a search conference on how to establish a university.

What were the results of the search conference?
This search conference lasted 3,5 days and brought together 52 eminent people from all over the world. We discussed, without any restrictions, what the ideal university of the 21st century should be like. The design period lasted three years. At that time, there were 58 universities in Turkey and we believed that were either going to establish the 59th or create an entirely new model. We chose the more risky option.

How much of your time do you allocate to the university?
I devoted a lot of time to it while it was being set up. Between 1994 and 2000, I devoted nearly all of my weekends to it. After our Rector Prof. Dr, Tosun Terzioğlu joined us in 1997, I reduced the time I allocated to the university. I now give half a day a week.

In what areas do you think that Sabancı University is strong?
54 percent of our graduates work after graduation. 17 percent take doctorates. There are those who continue their study by obtaining full scholarships from prestigious universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. Today the university is handling nearly 200 projects. The grants and contracts for these projects total YTL 36 million. This is how value is created.

What is your target now?
There is one area which we wish to improve in the future. That is, we want to make Sabancı University more international. Sakıp Sabancı’s legacy was an international research award. The jury is international and the participants are international. The subject is social sciences. We have presented the first two awards in Washington. This year we shall award the third.

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sseckin@capital.com.tr