SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RESEARCH CENTER (TESAR)

The Social, Economic and Political Research Center (TESAR) begun its activities in 1998 as a research center and is a modular organization comprising several units, each independent from the rest. The Center is run by a Chairperson and an Executive Committee, and reports to the Rector. In the new academic year, it is undergoing some important changes in its range of activities.

TESAR’s activities have been concentrated mainly on education and research: In terms of education, its major programs have a social orientation, as it offers honorary training certificate courses to high school graduates resident in the two districts where the University campuses are located, namely Kuştepe and Dolapdere, as well as to public servants engaged in public institutions located therein. The social content of the honorary training certificate programs offered is associated with the fact that both of the University campuses are located in the so-called shanty towns of İstanbul, hence the course participants come from low-income families.

The courses are run for training in English language, computer skills, computerized accounting, marketing and salesmanship and photography. In the field of computer skills, beginning with this academic year, a new program has been designed so as to render this modern technology accessible to primary school graduates as well.

Over the last six years in which TESAR has been active, the follow-up unit of the Center has gathered information on the post-certificate achievements of the Center’s participants. The results of the surveys reveal satisfactory achievement on their part, as the previously unemployed have been enabled to find employment thanks to the skills they acquired by their certificate training, while those who already held jobs have been promoted to higher positions requiring greater skills.

As of June 2005, a total of 3,830 course participants have been awarded certificates of achievement by TESAR. Since the training courses offered by the Center are invariably non-tuition based, their financing requirements are met through contributions by İstanbul Bilgi University. The budget for this program for the 2005-2006 Academic Year is 161,000 YTL (or $124,000).

The NGO Training and Research Unit, which offers certificate courses to train NGO participants, has its own web page (http://stk.bilgi.edu.tr), where interested internet surfers may access the relevant information.

TESAR also undertakes research activities in a few lines. One of these is oriented to the field studies of the youth in Turkey: the first two field surveys in this line (“Kuştepe Survey” 1999, and “Survey on “Kuştepe Youth” 2002, both edited by Prof. Dr. Gülten Kazgan) concentrated mainly on the families and youth of Kuştepe, revealing the issues associated with low income families coming from different social backgrounds. The third field study in this line has a wider scope as it surveys “The Urban Youth in İstanbul,” so as to bring into focus their differences according to income levels, gender and educational attainment. Currently the field survey related to this study has been completed and is in the course of drafting, to be ready for publication by the end of the second semester (ed. Prof. Dr. Gülten Kazgan).

The other research activity is on Eurasian Studies, in cooperation with the Oriental Studies Unit of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It has so far published the papers of the Moscow Conference under the title, “Turkey’s Political Economic, and Cultural Relations with Russia: Yesterday and Today,” (November 2003, ed. Prof. Dr. Gülten Kazgan- Dr. Natalia Ulchenko). The second meeting took place in İstanbul, and concentrated on conflicting issues between Turkey and Russia, with the purpose of producing peaceful solutions thereto. The papers of this second Conference are currently in print (ed. Prof. Dr. Gülten Kazgan); the book is expected to come out early next year.

TESAR has turned over some of its previously held sub-units (migration, music programs for children, local government education and research program) to the relevant institutions of İstanbul Bilgi University, hence narrowing somewhat its coverage this year.

In short, TESAR has a changing coverage in terms of its sub-units, but its focus on education and academic research as well as its socially oriented programs are here to stay.