Our Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Alican: "We Are Progressing Step by Step Towards Our Academic Goals"
Our university's steps towards enhancing academic achievements continue to attract attention. According to data from the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) Research Laboratory under the Informatics Institute of Middle East Technical University, our university moved up 7 places in the 2024-2025 rankings compared to the previous year, marking a significant success. Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Alican shared insights into the strategies implemented and the university's future goals.
Prof. Dr. Alican attributed this success to targeted strategies and academic focus. “When we took office in June 2023, we analyzed our current state. We identified areas where we were lacking in international rankings and focused on addressing these gaps. In 2024, we managed to appear in these rankings for the first time,” he stated. Highlighting two main approaches, he explained, “The first approach was to increase our potential for publications and projects. We rewarded and motivated faculty members publishing in internationally indexed journals to the best of our abilities, which increased their institutional loyalty and encouraged more research. Secondly, we aimed to inspire social sciences faculty by showing them successful examples, helping them overcome fears about publishing in such journals. Through this, we fostered general awareness of publishing.”
Discussing URAP indicators, Prof. Dr. Alican said, “Indicators measuring TÜBİTAK project numbers and international collaboration skills have significantly impacted our academic performance. For instance, in TÜBİTAK 2209-A student projects, we increased applications from 12 in previous years to 88 this year.”
Strengthening Our Academic Staff
Prof. Dr. Alican also mentioned efforts to strengthen the academic staff: “We are negotiating to employ foreign academic staff and to bring qualified scientists to our university through the TÜBİTAK 2232 Returning Scientists Program. Additionally, we are striving to recruit experts in their fields.” He noted that the absence of medical and veterinary faculties negatively affects rankings, explaining, “Academic staff in these faculties gain a substantial advantage by conducting applied studies, which impact success rankings. We are compensating for this by strengthening our academic staff in engineering and natural sciences. Particularly, we aim to establish a large farm in animal husbandry to enhance our practical training and research activities.”
Future Goals
The rector also shared the university’s future goals: “In the short term, we aim to increase both the quantity and quality of publications by our academic staff in high-impact journals and to integrate our social sciences faculty into the internationally respected publication ecosystem. Our long-term goal is to ensure the continuity of these objectives.” Concluding his remarks, Prof. Dr. Alican expressed his optimism: “By fostering such a culture, I believe we will rank higher in THE (Times Higher Education World University Ranking) and URAP. Our efforts are sincere, and success is in God's hands.”