Student Handbook

Education

• The language of education is Turkish.
• The department’s academic program lasts four years and requires a total of 240 ECTS.
•  Students are encouraged to take part in national and international student exchange programs (such as the Erasmus Exchange Program) both at home as well as abroad. With the decision of the relevant board of directors, the credits of courses or practices taken from another higher education institution at the same level are counted instead of the credits of the courses they are required to complete in the diploma program they are registered for.

Renewal of Registration and Consulting:

• At the start of each fall and spring semester, students must renew their registration within the time frames outlined in the academic calendar.
• The Department Head assigns an adviser faculty member to each semester/class, who must approve any registration renewals.
• The advisor assists the students in choosing courses.
• The adviser meets with the students during weekly academic consultation hours and updates them on the law, the subject matter of the courses, and their academic standing.

Attendance Requirement:

• The university determines the attendance requirements, and the overall length of instruction in that semester must be at least 70% for theoretical courses and 80% for applied courses (laboratory courses).
• The course instructor tracks each student’s attendance and enters it into OBS.
• The absence of students who represent the university or Turkey at a national or international level in meetings, sports, the arts, and similar activities is not taken into consideration with the Rectorate’s agreement.
• The requirement to attend the courses within the dates specified in the health report is waived if the student confirms the health difficulties with the health institution report that will make attendance not possible.

Success Criteria:

• A course will be considered passed when a student receives an overall grade of AA, BA, BB, CB, or CC.
• A student is considered to have achieved the course conditionally if they get one of the letter grades DC or DD. For a student to be considered successful upon graduation, their grade point average (GPA) must be at least 2.00.

Course Load and Taking Upper Semester’s Courses:

• Course load is the sum of all ECTS credits for all of the courses a student is enrolled in at any given time.
• The regular course load for a student is 30 ECTS credits per semester.
• Students participating in first-year undergraduate and associate degree programs are limited to taking no more than 30 ECTS of coursework per semester.
• Students with a GPA of at least 1.85 who take FF, FD, NA, I, and U in the same period the previous year and take the courses they failed as well as the courses they received DC and DD grades can take up to 36 ECTS per semester if the advisor finds it appropriate as of the third semester and the required courses do not overlap.
• Students who must take courses from semesters other than the current semester may take 6 extra ECTS courses regardless of the number of courses or one course regardless of the ECTS if the courses are available.
• Associate and undergraduate students who have been exempted and adapted for external, undergraduate transfer, and similar reasons may take a maximum of 36 ECTS courses per semester from courses opened in the semester, as long as they are predominantly from prior semesters.
• Students who have successfully completed four semesters of an associate degree or eight semesters of undergraduate education and have a GPA of 2.00 or higher may take courses with DC and DD grades with the advisor’s approval in order to increase their grade point average, provided that the maximum workload does not exceed 36 ECTS. These students’ most recent grade is admissible.
• A maximum of three courses from the university’s or another higher education institution’s summer school, totaling 18 ECTS, may be taken.
• Upper semester/successful students may take courses from one upper semester/year of the current year with advisor approval.

In order for a student to take lessons from the upper semester;

• Having completed all of the required credit courses prior to the application deadline,
• The GPA being at least 3.50 out of 4.00 at the time of application,
• Courses also should not overlap.
• Students having these credentials can begin taking courses as early as the third semester and up to a maximum of 6 ECTS.

Compulsory Course Repeat:

• Students must first take the courses they failed by taking FF, FD, NA, I, W, U in the same end-of-semester exams of the previous academic year at the beginning of the semester. Students having a GPA less than 1.85 must first complete the courses for which they received DC and DD grades the previous semester.
• If for any reason they were unable to enroll in the courses from the same semester of the previous academic year, they must enroll in these third priority courses at the start of the semester, as long as their load does not exceed 36 ECTS.
• There is no requirement for students to attend if they have not been absent from previous semester courses. Students in this circumstance, however, must participate in assessment and evaluation activities throughout the year, as well as continue with the course’s application, laboratory, workshop, and similar studies.

Make-up Exams:

• Make-up exams are assessment procedures for students who are unable to participate in the midterm exam and whose excuses are approved by the department/program board’s decision on the make-up petition filed to the dean’s/directorate authority.
• The procedure to be followed for students who are unable to participate in midterm exams or equivalent studies owing to a valid reason is set by the relevant instructor.

Repeat Exam:

• Every student who qualified for the final exam may take the repeat exam.
• The grade of the most recent exam taken is used to calculate course success in OBS.
• No excuse will be accepted from students who earned the right to exams in order to repeat them and increase their average score.
• While the repeat exam grade substitutes the final grade, the measurement and evaluation methods are the same as those stated in this Regulation for calculating the final grade.
• In the raw achievement grade calculation, the repeat exam grade is utilized instead of the final grade, and the lettered achievement grade ranges must be the same as the final exam lettered achievement grade ranges.
• The excuse of students who are eligible for a repeat exam but are unable to take it is not accepted, and there is no make-up exam for it.

Single Course Exam:

• Students who have passed all of their courses and have a GPA of 2.00 or more but have an FF grade from one of them are given a single course exam, independent of the semester in which the course is offered or the length of their education.
• Students who have completed all of their required courses during their time in regular education but who only get an FF in one of them are eligible to take a single course exam.
• The right to a single course exam must be exercised within one month of each semester-end examination period, on a date designated by the relevant board of directors.
• The Registrar’s Office must receive an application from a student who wants to exercise their right to take a single course exam, together with a petition that identifies the course for which they will take the exam and makes note of their intent to do so.
• To pass the single course exam, a student needs to receive at least 50 out of 100. Students who fail a single course exam may petition for re-enrollment in that course and may take a single course exam once every semester exam period.

Increasing Graduation Grade Exam:

• The exam for the two courses they want to take with DC and DD grades is available to associate’s and undergraduate students who have finished all of their prerequisite courses within the regular education period and have a GPA under 2.00.
• In increasing graduation grade exams, the following principles are considered:
• For the right to increasing grade exam, students must submit to the Registrar’s Office with a petition outlining the course in which they will take the exam.
• Students who fail increasing graduation grade exam can boost their GPA for graduation by enrolling in any DC or DD grade courses that are available the next academic year.
• The grade attained on the increasing grade exam is reflected as the course’s final grade in the grade chart.
• In accordance with Article 44 (c) of Law No. 2547, students who have completed their course obligations by meeting the attendance requirement to graduate from the curriculum they are enrolled in but who are unable to do so due to unsuccessful courses are subject to the University’s policies and guidelines at the conclusion of the maximum educational period.

Double Major:

• The Double Major Application Form from the registrar’s office information system (Proliz) must be filled out in order to apply to the double major program.

In order for the student to apply to the double major program;

• Being an undergraduate student of the University in accordance with the level of the program they apply to,
• Completing successfully all credit courses in the major undergraduate diploma program up to the semester they applied,
• The major diploma program’s GPA at the time of application should be at least 2.75 and ranked in the top 20% of the class for success.
• As long as a student has a score that is equal to the base score for the double major program in the relevant year, they are still eligible to apply to the program even if their GPA at the time of application does not meet the requirement but they are not in the top 20% of their class in terms of success ranking.
• Students who have received any disciplinary punishment cannot apply to the double major program.
• For more details, please see the ‘Istanbul Arel University Double Major and Minor Education and Training Programs’ directive in the Instructions section on the Arel website: https://www.arel.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Cift-Anadal-ve-Yandal-Egitim-ve-Ogretim-Programlari-Yonergesi.pdf

Minor:

• Matters related to double major and minor programs are discussed in Higher Education Institutions
• The transition between Associate and Undergraduate Programs is determined by the Senate within the framework of the provisions of the Regulation on the Principles of Double Major, Minor, and Inter-Institutional Credit Transfer.
• Within the framework of “Regulation on the Principles of Transition between Associate Degree and Undergraduate Degree Programs in Higher Education Institutions, Double Major, Minor, and Inter-Institutional Credit Transfer,” the Senate determines the policies and procedures pertaining to the students who will participate in exchange programs.
• The University receives payment from the exchange program participants’ tuition.
• For more details, please see the “Istanbul Arel University Double Major and Minor Education and Training Programs” directive in the Instructions section on the Arel website: https://www.arel.edu.tr/universite-hakkinda-yonetmelik-ve-yonergeler/

Disciplinary Rules:

• Like every student enrolled at the T.R. Istanbul Arel University, the disciplinary procedures for the department’s students are conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Higher Education Institutions Student Disciplinary Regulation, which was published in the Official Gazette on August 18, 2012, under the number 28388.

General Information;

• Our students can access the general information they will need via the link below https://obs.arel.edu.tr/oibs/bologna/index.aspx?lang=tr&curOp=showPac&curUnit=12&curSunit=1043#