Ergün Alver & Selma Yılmaz
Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU) 2022-2023 academic year opening ceremony was held with broad participation.
The ceremony started with laying of a wreath at the Atatürk Monument in Kurupelit Campus by Rector Prof. Dr. Yavuz Ünal; continued with a music concert after a moment of silence and the National Anthem.
Samsun Chief Public Prosecutor Mehmet Sabri Kılıç, Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir, Rector Prof. Dr. Yavuz Ünal, Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Cengiz Batuk, Prof. Dr. Mahmut Basoglu, Prof. Dr. Selim Eren, Prof. Dr. Sevim Alışık, General Secretary Pof. Dr. İdris Varıcı, academicians, and students attended the ceremony held at Atatürk Cultural Center and broadcast live on the OMU Youtube channel.
At the academic year opening ceremony, Rector Prof. Dr. Yavuz Ünal said, “I hope this academic year will create opportunities for us to write new success stories. In order to be a changer in a changing world, we need to analyze the current situation and create a perspective and strategy for the future. We have some goals set before us. Foremost among these, as OMU, we continued our steady progress in the university rankings, rising two more steps according to the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) data. OMU ranked 31st in the university rankings of 2020, 28th in 2021, and 26th in 2022, with an increase of 250 points. But our goal is to place OMU in the top 10 in Türkiye.”
Stating that they dream of building a university that supports the region’s development and international competitiveness and whose graduates are sought after, Prof. Dr. Yavuz Ünal said, “In a short time, we have carried out some campus-related studies for a green and environmentally friendly university. We took the carbon footprint of our campus and prepared a strategic plan to reduce the carbon footprint on the campus. We have included this in the strategic plan as well as to shape the consumption culture from transportation to consumption. Another point is that we have released pheasants and partridges to restore natural life and protect the natural life on the campus. These were important to raise our awareness.”
Pointing out that they also care about the relationship between institutions in their speech, Rector Ünal said that as OMU, they take a high-level role in providing all kinds of services that need to be carried out in Samsun. Rector Ünal continued their speech as follows:
“We organized the Middle Black Sea Career Fair (OKAF), hosted by OMU under the coordination of the Presidential Human Resources Office and with the partnership of 6 universities. We entered a strict working tempo in this important organization. We have enabled young people, especially university students, to direct their career opportunities by communicating with different institutions from the public sector and hundreds of companies from the private sector. Afterward, TEKNOFEST Karadeniz was an event held for the first time in the region, where we took part as a stakeholder university. We had the opportunity to promote our University nationally in the gigantic organization we describe as a technology festival. As a university, we have achieved great success by winning 17 awards. Lastly, we contributed to developing our city’s sports identity by hosting FISU (International University Sports Federation) World Cup Combat Sports matches.”
Explaining that they made a series of arrangements at OMU to create academic interest and then turn knowledge production into passion, Rector Ünal said, “One of them is the obligation to take at least two courses from outside the field. This course, defined as a social elective, can be met in two ways. One is to take it sequentially, like a regular course, while the other is to complete the required credit by participating in the academic activity. We start the process with our academic opening program. Dear students, register your event participation by scanning your student ID card when you enter and exit the hall. You will gain. Best wishes.”
Stating that OMU was among the entrepreneurial universities in Türkiye in 2021, Rector Unal said, “Our goal here is not to be one of 50 universities, but to be the best of 50 universities. Furthermore, we are working hard toward making OMU a research university in 2023. We gave importance to internationalization, changed the assignment and promotion criteria, and became a University where every graduate had to manage a project. OMU, which had zero patents in 2019, increased the number of patents to 16 in the first nine months of 2022, and we saw R&D as one of the areas we care most about. With all this, we aim to turn into a science center that directly contributes to the economy and trade of its region. We will contribute more to our city and country.”
Rector Ünal, who said that they established the Publication Coordinatorship to increase the scientific and academic quality, also talked about the new practice they implemented in the Faculty of Medicine and said, “Weekend surgeries have started at the OMU Faculty of Medicine Hospital with a historical decision. Then, out-of-hours diagnosis and treatment services began to be provided with appointments. As the University, we are making great efforts to increase our quality and satisfaction rate in the health field. We continue to make every effort to make Samsun a health base by putting 71 intensive care units into operation.”
Giving information about the centers within the university, Rector Ünal said, “We have centers such as the Experimental Animals Application and Research Center (DEHAM), which is among the most important centers in Türkiye, and the Stem Cell Application and Research Center (KÖKMER), which has achieved successful works. There is the transplantation center that has an important place in the Faculty of Medicine. We will establish an institute related to gene technology present in 3 universities in Türkiye and turn it into a part of the competition by turning it into a part of education. Moreover, with the proposal of the President of the Higher Education Institution (YÖK), Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, we are on the way to establishing a new institute called Wild Animal Research Institute. Our goal is to put OMU among its competitors in Türkiye as a new actor.”
Referring to the cooperation they have developed with institutions, Rector Ünal, who talked about the work of the OMU Search and Rescue Team, which was established with the Provincial Directorate of AFAD, concluded their speech by saying that OMU will prepare its own vision, its own strategic plan and that they want to achieve many goals in 2023.
Samsun Chief Public Prosecutor Mehmet Sabri Kılıç said, “Universities are the locomotive of cities, and OMU is the locomotive of our Samsun. It cooperates with all other institutions and organizations and does the best things to do. It develops projects that will set an example in Türkiye. One is the protocol we signed in 2021 between Samsun Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and Samsun University. With the protocol, our judge prosecutors were given a chance to receive both a master’s degree and foreign language education, and around 50 of our judge prosecutors were allowed to receive a master’s degree.”
In their speech, Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Demir drew attention to the cooperation between the municipality and the university and said: “We have many teachers with whom we work together. We support University-City Cooperation and University-Industry Cooperation in every sense. I congratulate the 2022-2023 academic year of Ondokuz Mayıs University, with which we have collaborated in every field, and I hope this year will lead to beneficial developments for both institutions. I wish success to all academicians and students, especially Rector Ünal.”
OMU Student and Climate Ambassador Batuhan Ateşli said, “All countries in the world will be affected by the increase in global average surface temperatures in different ways. Türkiye, one of the countries in the Mediterranean basin, is among the countries that will be most affected by climate change. Even if scientific researches show that it is not possible for the effects to disappear completely in a short time, since we are the source of the warming, the solution is limited with our efforts. All of us, you, governments, all institutions, and organizations must struggle against climate change and take adaptation measures to leave a more livable world to the next generations.”
The ceremony in which gifts were presented to the academicians of the university who received degrees in the ISIF International Invention Fair, the students who won medals in the FISU Universities Martial Sports Cup, and the academics who are on the World’s Most Influential Scientists List ended with taking a souvenir photo and giving a treat to the participants in the AKM Foyer Area.
Please click on the link below to watch the opening ceremony of the 2022-2023 academic year.
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