Erasmus+ Policy Statement

As a newly established university in 2010, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University (IZU) gives a high priority to have a multicultural and multilingual campus. Being a part of Erasmus+ Programme  provides us with more potentials in order to achieve international campus environment and certain level of student and staff mobility in order to develop multilateral cooperation, an understanding of education compatible with the European Education Area and recent innovations.
Acting with the vision of being an international research university, IZU closely follows international dynamics and has set itself following objectives within the Erasmus+ Programme:

1-To create an international campus environment by contributing to the recognition of the University at national and international level: Although IZU is a university that can be considered young, it offers a multinational campus environment with 20% international students and 11% international academics. IZU currently has more than 2200 international students from 91 countries. We believe that our participation in the Programme will contribute to our multinational and multilingual campus environment.

2-To strengthen education in foreign languages as well as increasing the numbers of international students and academics quantitatively and qualitatively: 27% of the study programs at IZU provide education in a foreign language, and this will lead the University to increase its ability in cooperating at an international level. In addition, we created a common portfolio of the courses that all students can follow, to support education in a foreign language. Thanks to these courses the University has a more preferable position by international stakeholders.

3-To increase the number of students and staff participating in the Erasmus+ Programme: We are fully aware of the importance of mobility for both students and staff, and that is why we plan to expand our activities in this area. We wish to send and host students from each of three cycles, but our main target for next years are 1st and 2nd cycle students. As an internationalizing institution, IZU welcomes international students and staff from all around the world. In such a multicultural environment, we are committed to ensure non-discrimination of gender, race, religion, disabled etc., and zero tolerance is implemented for discrimination of any kind as of establishment of our institution. The Executive Board will ensure it stays in that way.

4-To partner with many international institutions aiming to strengthen cooperation and relationships and diversify them in different geographies: Partnerships established within the Erasmus+ Programme enable student and staff mobility, as well as providing intellectual and scientific cooperation between institutions. IZU permanently searches for new partners to catch up new developments in higher education. We believe that increased level of quality by working with new and different partners brings benefits both for our institution and partners. IZU aims to cooperate with at least one university in each Erasmus+ Programme Country and with at least one university from each region in the Erasmus+ Partner Countries.

5-To interexchange good practices and innovation in cooperation with international partners: IZU intends to increase its internationalization through mobility activities as well as international projects within the Erasmus+ Programme. We aim to attract international cooperation projects with students and researchers from across European and extend our learning opportunities to every place that higher education is valued. Erasmus+ KA-2 projects, which are among our future plans, will support the internationalization of our institution as well as its modernization and increase in knowledge, quality, innovation and capacity.

6-To support personal and professional development of students and staff: One of our internationalization objectives is that our students and staff acquire personal and professional skills through international activities. Participation in the Programme will significantly contribute to the foreign language skills and future employability of our students and staff. Promoting active citizenship and civic engagement, tolerance and cultural awareness with the mobility activities are in line with the mission and values of IZU.

7-To reach European standards with continuous improvement in education and service quality: IZU confirms that participating in Erasmus+ Programme is part of its modernization and internationalization strategy. It acknowledges contribution of student and staff mobility as a key to the quality of its higher education programmes and student experience. Our efforts to adapt the European Education Area, starting with the Bologna Declaration, will be supported by mobility activities as a part of the process. In this context, our activities will be open for testing and developing with Erasmus+ Programme in order to improve education and service quality processes. We will also take the necessary steps for Erasmus Without Paper, Online Learning Agreement and Online IIA etc. under the European Student Card Initative to digitize the implementation processes and become more efficient.

Objectives mentioned above are the guidelines for achieving our aims of high education standards that are in line with the Internationalization Strategy of IZU. Our modernization efforts, which started with the process of Bologna Declaration, will be supported with the participation as a beneficiary institution of the Erasmus+ Programme. The implementation of the Programme will contribute significantly to the targets stated in the Strategic Plan of IZU by reaching intercultural communication, increasing the international visibility by developing cooperation with international institutions, creating joint projects in all study cycles and increasing the numbers of exchanging students and staff.