Next steps in Blended Education at Gaziantep University, Türkiye

Like many Higher Education Institutions worldwide, Gaziantep University (GAUN) in South-Eastern Türkiye, is looking for ways to utilize the potential of blended education. In collaboration with the NGO SPARK and via the Centre for International Cooperation (CIS-VU), educational advisor Luuk Terbeek (PhD candidate, VU Centre for Teaching & Learning) coordinates the blended education professionalization program for GAUN as part of the EU-Regional Trust Fund project in Response to the Syrian Crisis. The project is titled “An Integrated Pathway for Higher Education in Türkiye”.

Specific situational factors
The city of Gaziantep is in a very specific situation, with over 440.000 Syrian refugees residing there at the moment, making up around 21% of the total population. The overall goal of the project is to improve employability of graduates and reduce dropout rates. Certain factors making it difficult for students of GAUN to stay committed to the current programs. In many cases students are combining studies with jobs, as a result they cannot always attend education. Blended learning activities can provide more flexibility to students to follow courses.

Learning together
After providing training activities online since 2021, Luuk visited GAUN in May 2022 to provide training for teachers and to meet involved GAUN staff as well as  SPARK delegates. Derived from the European Maturity model for Blended Education (EMBED) (Valkenburg et al., 2020), Luuk applied a method to ensure the achievement of the educational and organizational goals by the end of 2023. Recently Luuk shared his experiences with this method with the other educational advisors of VU Centre for Teaching & Learning, who support program directors, teachers and support teams of the faculties in the implementation of blended learning. This enables them to systematically determine the current state of active blended learning, the recently added design principle to the educational vision of VU Amsterdam.

Contact Luuk Terbeek for more information about this project: l.terbeek@vu.nl.