Political Science and Public Administration

The Department of Political Science and Public Administration within the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of Afyon Kocatepe University was founded in 2008. Our department, initially established in the name of Public Administration, was later named as Political Science and Public Administration in 2007 based on the relation between Political Science and Public Administration so that our students can continue their education by taking basic courses in these two basic areas. The medium of instruction in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, which has a quota of 60 students, is Turkish. With the change of the name of our department as Political Science and Public Administration, according to our recently created curriculum which will be applied to the students who will study in the program in 2017-2018 academic year, our students are required to take 50 courses in order to graduate. The 50 courses given to the students are mainly given in 4 departments; Political Science and Social Sciences, Law, Urbanization and Environmental problems, and Administrative Sciences. Moreover, our students also take courses in other core areas such as Sociology, Philosophy, and Economics that are related to the field of Political Science and Public Administration.

The 50 courses that our students are required to take are composed of 29 compulsory courses and 21 elective courses.In addition, as part of an application throughout the university all the second year students take a non-area elective course both in the fall and the spring semesters. These courses are selected among the courses offered by departments outside the faculty in order to enable the student to have knowledge in different disciplines.The main objective of determining nearly half of the total course loads as elective courses in our department is to enable our students to choose from the areas they want to pursue in terms of their career goals and their academic development. Accordingly, all the instructions  and all the seminars and the meetings that our students need in line with their academic and career goals are organized by our department for 4 four years and it is ensured that our students head for the fields they are interested in.

In addition to the eligible undergraduate education in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, we aim to produce graduates who have gained the abilities such as analyzing, researching, and questioning as well as  having strong social communication and know teamwork skills with the ability to produce ideas and defense them.  In accordance with this purpose, the department implements a unique curriculum to make its students gain the ability to undertake managerial role in a rapidly developing and transforming society of Turkey and to provide them with information that includes the details of creative, and contemporary public administration and political science. The students of the department have the opportunity to study in one semester or two abroad via the Erasmus Program and at other universities in our country with the Farabi Program.

The Department of Political Science and Public Administration has also started to provide thesis master’s since the fall semester of 2010 – 2011 , and Phd program since the fall semester of 2016-2017.  Graduates of Political Science and Public Administration Department receive the title of “Government Executive”, and they can be appointed as District Governor and Administrative Law Judge,  They can work at Independent Autonomous Authorities (CMB, EMRA, CA and etc.) and Central Bank as assistant specialist and specialist, at Ministries as inspectors, at state institutions as officials, and they can also work in the private sector and in the third sector organizations (foundations, associations, cooperatives, etc.)