Starting with the 2003–2004 academic year, Yıldız Technical University has implemented a general education program that is gaining widespread acceptance worldwide within modern education systems and is also being implemented in various forms in our country. The general education program, implemented under the Rector’s Office and coordinated by the Department of History at YTÜ’s Faculty of Science and Letters, was consolidated within the Department of Human and Social Sciences, which was established in July 2006.
In our department’s undergraduate program, we offer social elective courses in fields such as Sociology, History, and Philosophy—as well as their subfields—to students from all departments across our university. The purpose of these courses is to introduce academic disciplines spanning diverse fields to the entire student body through original and contemporary approaches. The fundamental principles of this objective are to cultivate competent, independent individuals equipped with knowledge and cultural literacy regarding social institutions within the context of university education, and to facilitate interdisciplinary communication across diverse fields of knowledge.
In addition to the University Social Elective courses offered to undergraduate students, our department has been running graduate programs since the 2010–2011 academic year. Currently, four master’s programs—three in Turkish and one in English—and one doctoral program in English are actively in operation.