2023-2024 Academic Year Closing Ceremony and Graduation Program
The Closing Ceremony and Graduation Program, held annually for students who have successfully completed the ILEM Academy Program, will take place this year on Friday, May 31, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in the Prof. Dr. Raşit Küçük Conference Hall of Marmara University’s Faculty of Theology.
At this event, which celebrates the 23rd graduating class of the ILEM Academy, members of the ILEM leadership, committee members, students, and their families, as well as anyone interested, are welcome to attend. Following introductory remarks, Prof. Dr. Birol Akgün will deliver a lecture titled “Eğitimin Uluslararasılaşması ve Türkiye” (The Internationalization of Education and Turkey) Graduating students will be awarded their diplomas and gifts.
Who is Prof. Dr. Birol Akgün?
Born on March 5, 1968, in Soma, Manisa, Prof. Akgün completed his primary, secondary, and high school education in his hometown before graduating from Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Science, Public Administration Department (1993). In 1994, he went to the United States for a master’s program under an official scholarship from the Ministry of National Education. He completed his M.A. (1996) and Ph.D. (2000) in Political Science at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio). Upon returning to Turkey, he began teaching at Selçuk University’s Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, where he became an Assistant Professor in 2001, an Associate Professor in 2004, and a Professor in 2009.
Prof. Akgün currently serves as the Head of the Department of International Relations at Yıldırım Beyazıt University’s Faculty of Political Science and as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Turkish Maarif Foundation.
His articles have been published in international peer-reviewed journals as well as in domestic journals like Liberal Düşünce, National Geographic-Turkey, 2023, Tezkire, SÜ İİBF Social and Economic Studies, Strategic Analysis, and the Konya Chamber of Commerce Magazine. He has also published translations in journals from the SÜ Faculty of Law and the İzmir Bar Association and contributed entries to the "Turks Encyclopedia."
In 2003, Prof. Akgün won the first prize in the Social Sciences category from Milliyet Newspaper for his research on “September 11, Changing World Dynamics, and Turkey.”
Program Schedule:
