Faculty of Aquacultural Products in Turkey's Sinop University is staffed with 34 academics as well as several teaching assistants. The school has everything from fish tanks with numerous species for study purposes as well as a vessel for field studies. Yet, it lacks something essential: students.
In the past two years, no university hopefuls preferred the faculty that had its heyday in 2012 with 360 students since it was founded in 1992.
State-of-the-art facilities such as wellequipped laboratories and a charming view of the Black Sea promoted on the faculty's website has apparently failed to attract students to this state-run school.
Professor Recep Bircan, dean of the faculty, attributes the zero turnout to lack of employment opportunities for the graduates. "We were looking forward to enrolling students this year but unfortunately, no one enrolled. Our academics exerted efforts in Sinop and nearby cities to promote the faculty among students preparing for university admission exams. Yet, not a single student chose our faculty," Bircan says.
His faculty is not the only one suffering from low popularity, according to Bircan.
He says 24 other faculties of aquacultural products across the country share the same fate. "About 2 million students sat out the exams this year and only 146 of them preferred to study aquacultural products.As for Sinop and some other cities, no one wants to pursue this subject in our faculties,"Bircan remarked.Bircan points out that Turkey is surrounded by three seas, with 26 million of hectares of water, yet it "cannot make use of it."
The future is uncertain for aquacultural products studies but Bircan is proposing a series of measures such as not establishing new schools on the
subject and decreasing the capacity "to make them more efficient." "Students first look into how they can get employment after graduation. If they are provided with good opportunities, if their job as aquacultural product engineers can be recognized more, students will certainly choose our faculty," he added.
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