The developments in the global economic system in recent years and the increase in our country's share in the international economic order draw attention to international trade and finance sciences and cause an increase in interest in these fields. This is as follows: Every day, we enjoy sipping our instant coffee harvested from countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Kenya and Costa Rica under the brand of a Swiss company, and while we are looking at other parts of the world in a search engine invented by the Americans, in front of our computers produced in some countries in the Far East and finally assembled in China. We are watching with curiosity what is going on.
The necessity of developing appropriate business strategies to compete effectively in international markets in an environment where the intensity of competition is increasing within the global economic order is quite clear and important. In this regard, businesses' need for managers who can monitor and analyse economic developments at the international level and keep up with the rapid change is increasing. Acquiring these qualifications will be possible through interdisciplinary work.
At this point, the Department of International Trade and Finance aims to equip its students with quantitative and qualitative skills to compete in national and international markets and to make and implement sound decisions in the light of universal standards.
There are totally 9 academic staff within the Department of International Trade and Finance, including 2 Professors, 2 Associate Professors, 1 Assistant Professors and 4 Research Assistants. Our department includes regular and secondary bachelor’s degree programs that taught 30% of in English, and 1 master's and 1 doctoral program at the postgraduate level. There are currently 936 students studying at the undergraduate level and 42 students at the graduate level in our department.
The achievements that our department provides students within the scope of these goals and its academic quantities and qualifications can be listed as follows:
1) Adopting the existence of different economic ideas and being able to understand and evaluate different views at a theoretical level within a versatile understanding,
2) To be able to evaluate the national economy within global economic relations and to understand the role and impact of international economic organizations,
3) Being able to evaluate businesses in the fields of accounting, financial management and marketing and make market/sector analysis,
4) Learning, diversifying, and using statistics and econometrics programs at a good level,
5) Ability to communicate effectively using written, oral, and visual tools,
6) Ability to follow practical and theoretical innovations at national and international levels,
7) To be individuals who have a sense of responsibility, can take initiative, can lead within the team, and have high self-confidence,
8) To understand the necessity of lifelong education and to participate in this process as a student and educator.
Our department, which attaches great importance to practical education along with theoretical education, has focused on applied education through two different channels. Firstly, our department prepares our students for the future by organizing case study analyses every year and improving their ability to create solutions, develop precautions against risks and think analytically. Through case studies, our department is able to establish strong relationships with companies in terms of university-industry cooperation, and in line with these relationships, it allows students to get to know the market/sector through internships and gain experience. In this regard, we are grateful to the companies namely MERCAN KİMYA, ABALOĞLU, ERİKOĞLU, VESTEL, BEREKET ENERJİ, AYDEM, ER-BAKIR PELSAN, KAYA TEKSTİL, SÖKE HASSÜT, MAT ACADEMY and RATEKS, who conducted a case analysis and offered internship opportunities to our successful students. Secondly, within the scope of International Trade and Finance Econometrics Seminars (UTFES), which are open to students and academic staff at the university, organized every year. These seminars aim to provide students ability to empirically evaluate economic relations through mathematics, statistics, and data science and to interpret the relationship between these data. In addition, graduate students and academic staff from surrounding provinces also participate in UTFES, and the total number of students and academic staff participating in each semester reaches approximately 50 participants.
Our department give big importance to internationalization and offers its students the opportunity to study abroad and achieve international achievements within the scope of ERASMUS and Mevlana Student Mobility Programs. Within the scope of these programs, our students have received international education and experience abroad, especially in many European countries, from Central Asian and Southeast Asian countries to South Korea. According to the latest data, 25 students from our department had the opportunity to study in various European countries and gain experience abroad within the scope of the ERASMUS Student Mobility Programme in 2021.