About five years ago, the President of IU, the Dean of the Kelley School, and the Associate Dean of Kelley visited Turkey to see what opportunities might exist for a collaboration. In 2017, Kerem Cakirer, BEPP senior lecturer, began working with the Turkish Initiative, serving as director.
The goal of the Turkish Initiative is to form relationships between Turkish universities and IU Kelley.
“We’d like to initiate some programs such as online progress, dual degrees, exchange programs or maybe even recruiting Turkish citizens to the U.S. and have MBA or even undergraduate students here,” says Cakirer. “That’s the goal, but it’s still a progressive thing.”
Cakirer and his team worked simultaneously on three different projects at three Turkish different universities: KOC University, TOBB University, and Izmir Ekonomi University. The first is an exchange student program, the second is a dual MBA program, and the third is an online MS program.
“The MBA students will take some of their electives online from IU, and if they would like to continue the MS program, they can count those electives as credits and continue their MS online program in Kelley,” says Cakirer.
BEPP Senior Lecturer Kerem Cakirer
That plan went on for three years. During that time, Cakirer recruited 20 students, the maximum number of students allowed to enroll each year. They continued their study in Turkey but could take MS programs as well.
“The main goal was to expand IU’s presence in Turkey,” says Cakirer, noting that IU has other programs in England, Korea, China, India, and Eastern Europe as well.
This year IU started the initiative again with Sena and Seda Durguner, two Turkish colleagues of Cakirer’s who work in Kelley’s Finance Department. Cakirer, Sena and Seda started working on new projects with the full support of the Dean’s office.
“As Kelley Business School, we are looking forward to improving our partnership with Koc University, one of the most reputable universities in Istanbul, Turkey,” says Sena and Seda. “With this initiative, our goal is to provide a global experience where students get the opportunity to learn more about different cultures and establish life-long professional networks outside their domestic country. We are hoping this initiative will help Turkish students to network in the U.S. and Kelley students to network in Turkey.”
Following the COVID pandemic, the market for online programs has grown.
“Kelley is number one in offering the MBA and MS programs online, making this a perfect pairing,” says Cakirer.
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