Department of Sociology

General Information about the Program

Sociology is a social science discipline that provides an education of a comprehensive understanding and explaining of social structures, social institutions and social interaction. Sociology postgraduate programs in Anadolu University have been active for nearly twenty years. The aim of sociology postgraduate programs is to train sociological experts equipped with critical and analytical thinking, research design and application skills, high scientific ethic sensibility, and the ability to unite theory and research. Within the courses and thesis supervising periods, the department aims to have the students gain skills that will help them to design and apply empirical research and to have a comprehensive knowledge of theoretical and conceptual tools. Another aim of the program is to support the students on developing their verbal and written expressions, thus they reinforce their participatory qualities. With these academic skills, the students are expected to produce original studies that contribute to sociology and society.

In addition to the fundamental method and theory courses in the curriculum, the students are provided with selective sociological courses which would help them, particularly in their interest areas. Including current sociological developments, aiming to advance reading, debating and writing skills, these courses would increase the sociological analysis capacities of the students and prepare them to the thesis writing process. Additional academic events are also regularly organized in the department. Some of them are seminars on current social developments, conferences of guest academic staff from other universities and annual student congresses.

Sociology department at Anadolu University has a motivated academic staff that consists of four professors, two associate professors, four assistant professors and two assistants. Our aim is to train academically competent sociologists with a powerful comprehension of social phenomena and the social theory, and also to contribute to sociology discipline both at national and international levels.

Why international students should choose this department to study

First, international students are allowed to write their theses in English, which may provide a significant convenience.

Second, all of the academic staff have got proficiency in English, which is an important factor for international students both on communication, education and academic success. Syllabuses of courses usually include English materials. Most of the national students can also communicate in English to an extent.

Third, nearly all formal documents related to procedures of Anadolu University are provided to students both in Turkish and English. In addition, the university has a quite large library that contains more than a million materials in many foreign languages, especially including English.

Fourth, Sociology Department of Anadolu University is part of a number of international agreements such as ERASMUS or MEVLANA student exchange programs including postgraduate education.

Carreer Opportunites

Postgraduate in sociology provides a number of career opportunities in public and private sectors.

First of all, they can work as academic staff in universities. They can work as specialists, consultants or researchers in Ministry of Family and Social Policies, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Internal Affairs and in local governments.

They can also work as specialists in penal institutions, social services and child protection agencies and state institute of statistics. In addition to these public sector career opportunities, they can also work in human relations departments of companies, media organizations and companies and research companies in private sector.