To mark the completion of undergraduate classes of the fall semester, Health Culture and Sports Department organized a closing ceremony. Even took place on the January 4th and was attended by the rector of the University Prof. Dr. Recep Şentürk, faculty members including Prof. Dr. Halil Berktay, Associate Prof. Burhan Köroğlu, Dr. Hakkı Öcal, Dr. Önder Küçükural, Dr. Naoki Yamamato, Dr. Enis Doko, Dr. Merve Aktar ve Dr. Nihat Gümüş’ün, teaching fellows and first-year undergraduate students. In his brief speech, Prof. Dr. Recep Şentürk reminded the audience that he taught an undergraduate class this semester and mentioned that teachers, teaching fellows, and students demonstrated selfless work and successfully completed the semester. He advised students to make the best of the opportunities provided to them in terms of having a university life full of social and extra-curricular activities. Following Dr. Recep Şentürk other faculty members expressed their thoughts and feelings about the preceding semester and wished students good luck in the upcoming final exams.
After the brief speeches delivered by professors, the students had the opportunity to go to the stage and expressed their feelings, thoughts, and wishes about the university in the “open microphone” session. They emphasized that Ibn Haldun University is a privileged educational institution. The university provides a family atmosphere that hosts and embraces different cultures, which in turn creates a platform to know more about other cultures and learn different languages. Fatou Jobe, a Gambian student from Comparative Literature department, “Everybody at Ibn Haldun University is very kind and nice. When I came first, I used to think that maybe people are just pretending or behaving this way to look polite. Then I realized that they are sincere. The professors here are humble. You can speak to them directly, or you can have lunch with them in the dining hall. This sort of things is rare in other places. ” Lassana Vofin Donzo, a student of Sociology, mentioned that as a child he used to dream about studying prominent international universities like Oxford and Yale. Now here at Ibn Haldun University he is being taught by professors from those universities and is receiving comparative education, therefore, achieved more than what he dreamed about
One of the teaching fellows of Comparative Theories and Methods class Ayaz Asadov, who is also a Ph.D. student at the Alliance of Civilizations Institute, mentioned that this semester was his first experience as a teaching fellow at university and students demonstrated extraordinary diligence. He described the purpose of the event with the following words: “Our purpose in organizing this ceremony was to reward students with an entertaining evening for their outstanding performance literally right after the last class of the term. We didn’t want them to switch directly to the final exam mood without relieving the tiredness of the semester.
Our rector welcomed our idea and we planned the event.” Ayaz Asadov stated that this event helped students to relieve from the stress of the approaching final exams even if it was for a few hours. He further added “With this event for the first time in this term our students and faculty members came together in a non-academic event. And this time not only the faculty members but also students had the chance to take to the stage to share their impressions and ideas about the preceding semester and their overall experience about the university. We found it interesting that most of the international students mentioned that the education that they are receiving will be instrumental in rectifying social problems that people face back in their home countries”. In the last part of the event, students competed in Kahoot game administered by the General Secretary of the University Erkam Tüzgen. Winning students received gift cards. Fall semester closing ceremony came to an end with dinner.
