Sharing Our Learner Support Experience: A Visit to Boğaziçi University

Sharing Our Learner Support Experience: A Visit to Boğaziçi University
Neslihan Demirdirek & Sonat Demirdirek

As the Learner Support team in the School of Languages at Sabancı University, we were recently invited by Ayça Karaman, Mesut Öztürk, and Rabia Büşra Çemç from Boğaziçi University’s School of Foreign Languages (YADYOK) to share our experiences and practices with them.

The visit was organized within YADYOK’s efforts to enrich their students’ first-year university experience. During our meeting, we had the opportunity to present our program we have developed in the School of Languages at Sabancı University, with a particular focus on our Learner’s Support. We presented the support programs we run to help students navigate the transition to university life, our student guidance, support tutorials and other responsibilities of Learner Support team.

The exchange was a productive and meaningful one for both sides, and a valuable opportunity for collaboration.

This was not our first such invitation — last year, we were also invited by Kadir Has University to share our learner support model after meeting the Director of School of Languages at Kadir Has University during the Eaquals Conference in Malta. This suggests that there is a growing interest across institutions in how we approach student well-being and academic development at Sabancı University.

We're really happy to see our work reaching people beyond our own campus, and we look forward to further opportunities to connect and collaborate with colleagues from other universities.