The student clubs based at Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in a joint statement demanded that education should be student-oriented this term and in future. Clubs drew attention to the fact that the evaluation criteria and the intensity of the courses conflict with the needs of the students.

The clubs that signed the joint statement are: Taşkışla Stage, ITU Landscape Architecture Club, Urban and Urbanization Club, ITU Architecture Club, Cins Arı, Artistic Perspective Club, ITU Argentine Tango Club, Erasmus Student Network, ITU Dance Club, Occupational Safety Club, ITU Hip Hop, ITU Philosophy Club, ITU Folk Music Club, ITU Physics Engineering Club and ITU Mechanical Engineering Club.

ITU Students Are Only On the Computer

The following explanations were included in the joint statement; “Distant education at ITU has become a very intense and exhausting process for students in the 2020-2021 fall term due to technical inadequacies and non-student-oriented course applications. In an academic year when courses are taught online, the course evaluation criteria, which was changed on the pretext of students being able to watch the courses, condemned students to a  life in which they can only devote time to courses.”

Our Demands for a Student-Focused Education

The students state that they have announced their demands in order for the administration to review the process experienced as ITU clubs in this term in a student-oriented way, to consider the suggestions of the students in the term planning and to reorganize the term planning in this way. The demands of ITU students are as follows:

• Reducing the intensity of preparing and submitting term papers in a way that does not negatively affect students’ lives socially and physically
• Not imposing new responsibilities that will increase the workload of assignments, presentations and quizzes that have been submitted so far
• For students to be able to complete the lessons taught on the computer during the distant education process on time and to prevent students failing courses by extending the time allotment
• Technical problems experienced in midterm, final or other assessment exams should not be the responsibility of  students, and students should be given rights that will not cause unjust treatment in terms of technical problems.
• Removing the restriction of not returning to previous questions in online exams and giving students the right to answer exam questions in the order they want
• Removing the obligation to open a camera in exams and presenting it to students as a personal choice
• The reorganization of course attendance requirements by taking the conditions of the students and the problems that may be experienced into consideration 
• The inclusion of students in the decisions of the university administration in order to have a say in all matters that concern them, enabling them to have the right to speak along with representation mechanisms in the school.

Student clubs invite all ITU members to insist on voicing their demands.