Job Discussion Forums

[TheLastNick]

I've heard a a lot of contradictory opinions about Fatih U - some regard it as the hatchery of islamic fundamentalism ( Fethullah G�len etc), other describe it as religiously oriented but rather liberal institution.


Does anyone here have first-hand experiences with Fatih U or knows someone who has?

[tvik]

i'm also interested in comments on all universities in istanbul. would be nice to hear something

[justme]

TLN-- I worked there for 2 1/2 years, and I'd say it's somewhere in the middle of the 2 extremes you describe. Lots of people told me there were secret jihad training camps there, but I never saw anything like that. It's pretty conservative though, and about 5 years ago they were almost shut down for letting girls wear headscarves on campus. Now, though most the girls and female staff are covered, they just follow the letter of the law-- no headscarves on the actual campus, but the scarves go right back on the moment they cross the threshhold. There is indeed a strong Fet�llah connection, and though I can't vouch for them having any involvement in politics, my guess is that they probably do.

My first year there, classes and exams were arranged to go around prayer times, but they changed that my second year (though on Fridays they'd all disappear for the last lesson anyway). In my first 2 years, students were extremely conservative-- one class got really mad at me after reading a passage in the grammar book that described animals in the wild using plants to medicate themselves fo headaches and upset stomachs and such, and this got the students all riled up because animals aren't supposed to have thoughts or wills or souls or whatever. But this year, students were decidedly less conservative (they doubled the size of the prep dept this year, and there were also some changes in the �SS which I think changed the student population a bit)-- I even had a few who happily talked in class about the fact that they drink alcohol, which never would have happened in previous years...

And actually, I really liked working there. The prep dept is doing a very good job of improving, and teachers there, both Turkish and foreign, are really dedicated professionals. Most Turkish teachers have excellent English and are very serious about improving it, and I never felt any tension between Turkish and foreign staff. And I have to admit that I kind of appreciated how knowledgable Turkish teachers were about Islam-- not simply paying it lip service, but really deeply religious with strong theological backgrounds. But that's just because I get really annoyed with people who are religious for show.

PM me if there's other stuff you want to know about this school...

[tvik]

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[tvik]

didn't actually mean to post that three times