About Us
The four-year Bachelor's Degree Program in Cultural and Communication Studies provides its graduates with a basic, scientific education while aiming at professional skills in companies and institutions with Turkish-German as well as international relations.
The Cultural and Communication Studies program is a young and dynamic program that started its operations in 2016 and is looking forward to graduating for the first time at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. Our degree program is one of the most intensive global and international structures in its field. The program provides students with the opportunity to acquire fundamental, specialized knowledge in both cultural studies and communication studies. At the same time, the two fields are linked through common themes and through the semester foci. In accordance with the teaching concept of the TDU, the knowledge acquired is deepened in projects and exercises and at the same time opened up for application. Projects can also be linked to internships. From the beginning, a part of the courses (about one third in total) is held in German.
The program in Cultural and Communication Studies follows an interdisciplinary approach, dealing with communication studies in a cultural context. The interdisciplinary approach currently determines the future of each subject in today's complex system world. To this end, our curriculum and academic approach have a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted structure. The basic academic concept of this university-based program is to provide students with the fundamental ability to competently reflect on and communicate cultural issues through selected questions and theoretical approaches. The focus is on the mutually influencing processes of change, transformation and interaction of cultural assets and the highly dynamic character of the current media landscape, especially in the field of new media. In order to do scholarly justice to this two-sided dynamic, a well-founded education in questions of cultural and media history and the long-term transmission of cultural knowledge must be provided. This is the reason why the two parts of the program belong together.
With its intercultural aspect, our degree program has a competitive curriculum and academic staff, as well as a strong international stakeholder structure consisting of international academic communities and companies. On the other hand, these features of our degree program, which also has a strong synthesis of Turkish and German academic traditions, are characterized by academic teaching, research and social activities. The natural consequence of this is a very strong employability for our students and innovation for all organizations that are our stakeholders.
The program enables students to work independently in a variety of communication-related professions in both Turkey and Germany. At the same time, it serves as a foundation for further academic training in master's programs in both countries. With our German-language master's program in intercultural management, our students can continue their education after graduating with a bachelor's degree. In keeping with the special character of TDU - as a Turkish-German university - students are given the opportunity to complete part of their studies in Germany as part of their studies at German partner universities in a sponsored summer school and, if desired, during Erasmus stays. If possible, internship opportunities in Germany will also be offered. We plan to start in 2021 with our new international master's programs, which will give academic career opportunities to our own graduates and also other strong and competitive graduates from various universities.
The program aims - in addition to training for advanced master's degree programs in Turkey and Germany - to provide professional skills especially in the management of companies and the management of public institutions with Turkish-German or international relations. This includes jobs in companies under Turkish management in Germany or Turkey as well as in German companies in Turkey or working areas in ministries, associations or cultural institutions in both countries as well as on an international level. Our students can be employed in conventional media industries such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio as well as in advertising agencies, PR agencies and digital agencies that have entered the field of new media industry and marketing communication . In addition, museums, art galleries, production companies, theaters, performing arts companies, and the tourism industry are among the employment sectors of the program.
The University of Passau, represented by Prof. Dr. Alexander WERTH from the Faculty of Cultural Studies, is in charge on the German side for the realization of the study program "Cultural and Communication Studies". On the Turkish side, Assoc. Prof. Sureyya ILKILIC, Head of Cultural and Communication Studies at the Faculty of Culture and Social Sciences, is responsible for the realization of the study program in Cultural and Communication Studies.
