• Campus Student Residences
• Campus Faculty Residences
• Renting
• Cafés and Eateries
• How to locate your international officer
• Health and Counselling Services
• Transportation
• Student Activities & Sports
• Stationery Shop
• What the Weather is Like & What to Pack
• Residence Permit for Students
• Residence Permit for Faculty
• Other Useful Information

Cafés & Eateries

On campus
Aside from Main Cafeteria, which is an integral part of campus life at the Institute, every faculty and the Administration Building has its own café serving fast food, substantial sandwiches, snacks, and refreshments. Main Cafeteria also houses the Faculty Club. Located on the third floor of the building, Faculty Club is currently reserved for luncheon meetings and formal occasions.

Main Cafeteria serves regular balanced meals to students, faculty, and staff as well as diet courses at exceedingly reasonable price. The current price per lunch for students and staff is well under 1 €. At higher than student and staff rates but still a little under 1 € per meal for assistant professors and a trifle above 1 € for associate and full professors, faculty pay a little more.

There is no extra charge for the dietic menu. Lunch Cards, which are the only means of payment at Main Cafeteria, may be purchased from the secretariat of academic departments and the offices of The Division of Health, Culture, and Sports located in the Administration Building.

International students and scholars with special dietery requirements contact Ayla Yemenicioğlu at the Office of International Relations.

The monthly menu is sent electronically to all subscribers to an @iyte.edu.tr e-mail box address.

For cooking facilities in campus faculty residences and student residences, see the relevant sections above.

Off-campus
Food and varieties of cooking in the Izmir area are a rich subject that can easily lead one into the history of this region that has known so many cultures, religions, languages, traditions—including culinary ones—in addition to posessing agriculturally perhaps the most fertile soil yielding richest variety of produce this side of the Mediterranean. Suffice it to say, there are very numerous places to eat well at small expense. Particularly the Çeşme Peninsula , on the other hand, offers opportunity for lavish spending—on food and other spheres of indulgence. The restaurant and eatery row stretches along the coast from the village of Gülbahçe through the towns of Urla-İskele and Urla into and through the city of Izmir and beyond. Driving along the coast in the other direction from Gülbahçe, toward Karaburun, the village of Mordoğan offers numerous scenic food places for every budget. Taking campus exit along the “old çeşme road” (as opposed to the Izmir-Çeşme motorway), the scenic road is again studded with restaurants.

Aside from the classics of Turkish cuisine, the Izmir area is known for two kinds of food: sea food and greens, some of both of which are found nowhere else in the world. At Gülbahçe, the resort-cum-fishing-&-gardening village which lies virtually on campus, there is plenty of both.

Below is a compilation of village eateries that are open throughout the year (as opposed to those catering to vacation home owners during the summer months of May-October). One may leave any of the following addresses feeling rather satiated at 2-3 € per meal. Village eateries open for lunch and close around 21:00 except in the summer months when they are open for as long as there are diners. Telephone numbers are indicated and most deliver to campus for free, but few of the village folk speak English.

Entering the village from university side, just after the Shell gas station on the right side of the road is Lokanta (which means ‘eatery’), a favourite at İYTE because it is close, offers clean, nourishing food, and the owner Hüdaverdi is very friendly. Lokanta serves homecooking. The daily menu features two or three different dishes that show small variation in the course of a week. Excellent standard salad, though little else is offered for the vegetarian palate. Telephone: (0232) 765 82 71.

Across the street is another favourite, Mavişim Pide, which serves lamb, chicken, meatballs grilled in earthenware pots and a variety of pide, including vegetarian kinds. The words pide and pizza derive etymologically from identical ancestry. Similarly, the foods they designate are variations on a Mediterranean theme. Telephone: (0232) 765 81 12.

On the same side of the road further into the village is Café Calipso. They open for breakfast (English breakfast, Turkish breakfast, and others). The kitchen closes at 22:00 , but their salad bar and other cold foods are available until midnight and beyond. The lunch and dinner menu features soups, salads, pizza, pasta, grill, and so forth. They are reliable deliverers. Telephone: (0232) 765 83 00.

Some five minutes’ walk further down the road, on the right, one arrives at Deniz Kebap & Pide serving a menu similar to that of Mavişim Pide. Telephone: (0232) 765 78 60.

Köfteci Salih is located at the village piazza. Salih is the first name of the owner while köfte means ‘meatball’ and köfteci designates a place where you can eat köfte. The fare is similar to that of the pide places listed above. What makes Salih special is that he is open late and will deliver to campus even in the small hours. This is where İYTE people who are studying or working late order in. Telephone: (0232) 765 81 35.

There are others closer to the coast line at the village, which the stroller will come across walking toward the sea from the village piazza.

Tepe Kahve is another favourite with İYTE. It lies in the other direction from campus than does the village Gülbahçe and is not within walking distance. The drive will take about ten minutes on the ‘old Çeşme road’. The owner’s first name is Çetin. The restaurant telephone number is his GSM: (0535) 310 30 95.

Naturally, the village has a couple of Turkish coffee houses. The language one overhears there that is not Turkish is Albanian, the homeland language which Gülbahçe villagers have kept alive through generations. Even though in traditional fashion the village coffee house is a gathering place for village men—a remnant of the ancient forum, as it were—the international student or scientist of either sex will not be breaking a rule of etiquette by simply strolling in and joining in a game of backgammon or chess.

For the nearest cafés and sea food restaurants on the sea, one goes to Urla-Iskele. See Transportation below on how to go to Urla-İskele from campus.

Where to shop for food & other items
Gülbahçe has two large grocery stores that carry fresh fruit and vegetables grown in the village, dairy, cold cuts, and dry foods. They also carry toiletries, cleaning materials and so forth, but the selection of brands will be limited: those who insist on their favourite shampoo brand will have to take the dolmuş to Urla. Both stores deliver to campus when staff is available. The code of hospitality will likely ensure that the international İYTE guest receive faster service than the local. Both are open until about midnight. They are open on weekends as well.

Gülbahçe Süpermarket is a short walk down the road from the above-described Lokanta and Mavişim Pide. It lies to the left of the road, on the same side as Mavişim Pide. Telephone: (0232) 765 79 45. A few steps down from Gülbahçe Supermarket is a store that carries hardware and building materials and fixtures.

Anar Market is further down the same road, to the left. Telephone: (0232) 765 70 37. Next to Anar Market is the village meat store. Across the street from it is one of the two bread bakeries of the village.

The store at the Shell gas station at village entrance opens at 07:30 and closes at midnight. During summer months, it is open until ca. 02:00. Telephone: (0232) 765 83 93.

The lively town of Urla has two large supermarkets, Tansaş and Pehlivanoğlu, and specialised food stores as well as shopping facilities for any other item one may need. See Transportation below on how to go to Urla from campus.

How to Locate Your International Officer

The Office of International Relations is located in the Faculty of Engineering complex of buildings. The international visitor will notice that the engineering buildings surrounding the courtyard carry different colour codes. The Office of International Relations is in the building framed green. Take the entrance next to the stationery shop and walk a floor down.

For information on who’s who in the Office of International Relations, see the heading Communication at the Office’s web page.

Stationery Shop

There is a stationery shop at the entrance of every faculty, making a total of three such shops on campus. Aside from catering to fundamental stationery needs, each carries material peculiar to the needs of a student studying in that particular faculty. Each delivers also xeroxing and computer printing services.

What the weather is like & what to pack

Weather

Izmir is located in one of the world's largest oxygen zones. That should imply clean air, and indeed the air is wonderfully clean, making breathing a very pleasure—until winter season arrives and an increasing number of residential buildings turn on their coal-fueled heating system. Two points on the plus side: the cold season is short and the polluted Izmir winter air remains far off İYTE. At İYTE the air is the cleanest one may find anywhere.

As in the rest of the region that commands what is termed the ‘Mediterranean climate’, there are four seasons. The mild season begins in March and one begins to need a not-so-heavy woolen sweater some time between October 1st and mid-November. July and August can get truly hot, but not only is the sea always a short walk or quick drive away at İYTE, the always cooler Çeşme and Karaburun are at a 20-30 minute drive depending on where you wish to go on either peninsula. The three months of December through February are the cold winter months. It used to be, until some decade ago, that a warm raincoat tided one over the winter period without need of anything heavier. Even though every third year or so Izmir still experiences one of those traditional, mild Aegean winters, they are becoming increasingly rare. We now even have snow in winter—a truly exotic experience for those denizens of the region who are in their thirties and older. Smyrnians have begun to acquire large warm overcoats, even down coats, fleece garments, and polartec.

In no season is there a considerable change in temperature from day to night. Humidity rate is high in all seasons. Each season has its own spectrum of winds: remember why it took the Greeks so long to sail to Troy .

What to pack

Clothes: Even when the winter thermometer indicates well above 0°C, humidity requires layering of light woolens/jerseys. Pack waterproof outer-wear for rainy weather. Those of us who live on campus find long undergarments indispensable on winter nights.

For spring and summer, bring breezy cotton clothes, shorts, loose linen slacks, T-shirts.

Have swim gear with you. Though for locals the season for swimming in the Aegean Sea begins in late June, Scandinavians and other northerners have been known to open the season in March. The Izmir area, however, from Balçova through the Çeşme region is thermal area interspersed with warm pools of water so that one can comfortably swim in winter, too, in known spots of sea or swimming pools.

Dress at İYTE is casual. We live and work between mountains and sea and seize every opportunity for a walk in either direction. Campus life requires reasonable shoes.

Resist the natural tendency to over-pack. If you miss anything, you will be able to pick it up in the Izmir-Urla area at exceedingly reasonable price.

Other items: Bring your laptop computer, your CV, and copies of your published papers.

Power in Turkey is 220 V and we use the standard two-wire plug popularly known as ‘Europlug’. Sockets in all İYTE buildings are grounded.

You do not need to bring extra units of toiletries, contact lenses, saline solution, camera film, and so forth. Unless you are very keen on a specific rare brand of an item, you will find all of the above as well as guides, phrase books, etc.

Residence Permit for Students

Turkish immigration law requires international students to report to the Department of Foreign Residence Registration at the local Directorate of Security in order to obtain a Residence Permit. In the case of international students and faculty at İYTE, the local directorate is the Izmir Directorate of Security.

Contact Figen Akıncı at the Office of the Registrar / International Students to obtain the current list of documents to submit to the Directorate to obtain the Residence Permit.

As one of the documents to be submitted in applying for the Residence Permit is certification of student status, students must register academically at İYTE prior to submitting the application for Residence Permit. The Office of the Registrar and the Office of International Relations collaborate to assist international students in gathering those documents that originate at İYTE offices. Students must complete the İYTE Application Form for Residence Permit. They submit this completed form to Figen Akıncı at the Office of the Registrar for approval.

The Residence Permit must be obtained within one month of entering Turkey. A fine for late registration may apply.

Upon submitting the application for Residence Permit at the Department of Foreign Residence Registration, students will be given a receipt indicating the date they may pick up their passport and Residence Permit booklet.

Normally, it takes two to three days for the Department to process an application and return passport and Residence Permit to the applicant.

Students must report in person to the Department both to apply for the Residence Permit and to pick up their permit and passport.

The İYTE Friend assigned to each international student at İYTE will accompany incoming international students to the Directorate in Izmir and assist them in picking up their Residence Permit and passport if they so wish. The student may apply for accompaniment to the relevant officer at the Office of International Relations or make an appointment directly with his/her İYTE Friend.

All international students must submit two separate photocopies of the first 7 pages of their Residence Permit to İYTE:

1. One copy of the Residence Permit must be submitted to Figen Akıncı at the Office of the Registrar.
2. Another copy of the Residence Permit must be submitted to Asena Altan (Erasmus students) or Ayla yemenicioğlu (all other international students) at the Office of International Relations.

International students registered in a degree programme at İYTE are usually given a Residence Permit of one year’s duration. Exceptions are students matriculated in their final semester before graduation. These students may be given a Residence Permit for the duration of the semester.

International special students and exchange students are usually given a Residence Permit for the duration of the study programme for which they are registered at İYTE and as indicated in the student visa stamped in their passport. Thus a student visa stamp that indicates the duration of studies as six months will obtain a Residence Permit of six months. Extension of the study period at İYTE will enable a student to apply for extension of the duration of the Residence Permit.

Application for an extension of the Residence Permit requires submitting to the Department of Foreign Residence Registration the same documents as for the initial application except that fewer copies are required of some of the documents. Erasmus students, and all other international students apply to Figen Akıncı at the Office of the Registrar to obtain two kinds of materials they will need to apply for an extension of the Residence Permit:

1. The İYTE Application Form for Residence Permit Extension to be submitted to İYTE prior to applying to the Directorate for an extension
2. The current list of documents to submit to the Directorate for an application of extension

Students submit the completed İYTE Application Form for Residence Permit Extension to Figen Akıncı at the Office of the Registrar for approval.

Again, the international student’s İYTE Friend will accompany the international student who so wishes.

İYTE Registrar

Other Useful Information

1. Banking

Working hours at the campus bank are 09:30-12:30 and 13:30-16:30.

The town of Urla has branches of most major Turkish banks including the following:

Branches of International Banks in Izmir:

2. Post Office & Telephone Services

Turkish Post Offices maybe recognised by the PTT sign in black letters against a yellow background. PTT stands for Postal, Telephone and Telegraphy (“wire”) services. The sign stands even though telephone administration has been transferred to Türk Telekom and is in the course of becoming privatised.

The Post Office nearest to İYTE campus is in Urla. It is located next to the Municipal Building on the main street (Belediye Caddesi) of Urla, and is right across the street as one walks from the dolmuş and bus depot to the main street. Working hours for the Post Office are 08:30-12:00 and 13:30-17:00.

The Main Post Office in Izmir, which is open 24 hours for seven days a week, is in the immediate vicinity of İYTE-Alsancak. Walking toward the sea from İYTE-Alsancak, it will be on the left hand side on the piazza.

All telephone booths in Turkey feature card telephones. Telephone cards are available at any post office, larger newspaper kiosks, and some grocery stores.

Students may not place local, long-distance (inter-city) and international calls through the İYTE operator.

It appears that the majority of İYTE students use a cellular telephone. The most accessible cellular line carriers in Turkey are:

Public telephones are available in:

• The Faculty of Science, main entrance, on the left
• Administration Building , lower entrance (café entrance), on the right
• Alsancak complex, to the left of the elevators at the main entrance

3. Transportation

Aside from the service buses organised by the university for İYTE faculty, students, and staff, convenient transportation between campus and Izmir and towns of the area is provided by dolmuş.

Time table of İYTE-Urla and İYTE-Izmir dolmuş:

İYTE travelers may also use the Izmir-Ildırı, Izmir-Çeşme, Izmir-Mordoğan, Izmir-Karaburun dolmuş in either direction.

FARE

Cost of fare for the period of 15.10.2004-14.10.2005 is as follows:

4. Pharmacies under contract with İYTE:

Most pharmacies in the Urla region are open Monday to Saturday 08:00 hrs to 19:00 hrs. The pharmacies in Izmir are open Monday to Friday 08:30 hrs to 20:00 hrs. They are closed on Sunday both in Urla and Izmir . There is, however, a pharmacy “on duty” in every district during after-hours and on Sunday. There will be a sign at every pharmacy, indicating the nearest pharmacy open during after hours or Sunday.

5. Glossary & Abbreviations

The following are a thematically organised series of explanations of fundamental terms used in İYTE ‘speech’, familiarity with which may expedite campus routine for the international visitor:

Administration Building
The large grey building next to the Offices of the President, it houses the Office of the Registrar, the Medical Centre and Health & Counselling Services, the ATM (bank teller machine), the Graduate School Office, the Co-ordination Office for Student Associations, Buildings & Grounds, and the most quiet eatery on campus.

Assessment Methods
Assessment Methods employed at İYTE vary according to course type and lecturer. The methods applied across the curricula are the following:

• written midterm and final examinations
• written quizzes
• oral quizzes, midterm and final examinations
• short written homework assignments
• orally delivered and written research project reports on work conducted individually or in groups
• written paper

BUAM
The acronym stands for Bilgisayar Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi and means Computer Applications and Research Centre. Aside from conducting research in the sphere of information technology, the Centre also delivers ITS (Information Technology Services) to the Institute community ranging from e-mail box services through @iyte.edu.tr to soft- and hardware maintenance and ÖBS.

Courses
An elective course is a course the student chooses, albeit subject to the supervision and approval of an academic advisor or, in the case of postgraduate students, thesis advisor. At İYTE, an elective course is rarely elected under circumstances of absolute freedom. Upon this rare occasion, a department is likely to designate an elective as a free elective in the curricular chart. Thus with few exceptions in any given curriculum, electives may be designated as technical elective, non-technical elective, or restricted elective. Even though the terms technical elective and non-technical elective are widely and consistently used across curricula at İYTE, they do not allow for systematic or objective description. This owes to the fact of the individual research-based nature of education at İYTE even on the undergraduate level: while a course may constitute a technical elective for the concentration chosen by one student, it may constitute a non-technical elective for another. For exact definitions, a student should consult his/her academic advisor or the departmental ECTS co-ordinator. A restricted elective is a course which the student selects from a specified cluster of courses.

A mandatory course is a course in which a student must matriculate and which a student must pass in order to graduate and earn a diploma in an academic programme.

A core course is a course that belongs to the set of mandatory courses a programme considers indispensable for education and graduation in a given field. Usually, while a mandatory course is required of all students pursuing studies in a department, a core course may be concentration-specific and may be required of students pursuing studies in a specific programme or area of specialisation.

800 & 900 coded courses are of concern to the local graduate student at both master’s and doctoral level. They are of concern too, to the international graduate student who comes to İYTE for participating in research and must demonstrate credit-bearing registration and or receive a grade and or schedule regular meetings with a faculty member. An İYTE graduate student matriculates in an 800 or 900 coded course (usually in both, simultaneously) at the level of thesis research and writing. Every full-time faculty member at İYTE has his or her own 800 and 900 code, and students sign up for the code of the person under whose supervision they conduct thesis research. A student re-matriculates in the 800 and 900 course of his or her thesis supervisor until completion and submission of the thesis. An 800 or 900 coded course is assigned 4 (four) regular weekly meeting hours during which the student meets with his or her supervisor for discussion, consultation, presentation or lectures as is found appropriate. Details may be found in the relevant course forms in İYTE’s ECTS Information Package.

Dolmuş
In one sense, a dolmuş is a taxi cab rented collectively. The dolmuş have their own stops and depart for their destination at a scheduled time or when all passenger seats in the vehicle are taken. The word means ‘filled’ or ‘full’. The dolmuş of highest importance to the İYTE community are those of the İYTE-Urla and İYTE-Izmir route. They depart according to a schedule from the Faculty of Architecture complex and make three more stops within İYTE before heading for their destination and return via the same route. These dolmuş are minibuses and riding them from one campus stop to another is free. For schedule & route information and prices, consult the heading transportation under ‘Living at İYTE’ on İYTE’s main page.

800 & 900 courses
See Courses

ITS
See BUAM

İYTE
The acronym stands for İzmir Yüksek Teknoloji Enstitüsü and means İzmir Institute of Technology.

İYTE Friend
This is the designation of the person assigned to each international student at İYTE. This friend is selecetd from among İYTE students who perform volunteer work at the Office of International Relations and are thus familiar with procedure and requirements. The İYTE Friend is
on 24-hour call for the international student and assists in a variety of ways including accompanying the guest to government offices.

Incoming international students meet their İYTE Friend in Orientation Week. The international student may also contact the Office of International Relations to find out about his/her İYTE Friend.

Lunch Cards
Lunch Cards, called in Turkish ‘yemek kartı’, are the only means of payment at Main Cafeteria. They may be purchased from the secretariat of academic departments and the offices of The Division of Health, Culture, and Sports located in the Administration Building .

ÖBS
The acronym stands for Öğrenci Bilgi Sistemi and means ‘Student Information System’. It is the name for İYTE’s on-line registration system.

Teaching
The method of teaching at İYTE varies according to department and according to lecturer. The general tone is set by classroom lectures as well as by the laboratory or design studio. Class attendance carries real weight in the educational system at İYTE and is formally controlled. Attendance in formally organised laboratory or design studio sessions is equally important. The percentage-weight carried by attendance in each course is indicated on the course information sheet and syllabus. The method of classroom and laboratory/studio teaching is complemented by seminars and individual and team projects. See also Assessment Methods.

TL
The acronym stands for Türk Lirası and means 'Turkish Lira' . On January 1st, 2005, the TL was replaced by YTL, Yeni Türk Lirası which means New Turkish Lira. The YTL was obtained by eliminating six zeroes from the TL. Currently, in 2005, both currencies are in use.

UİO
The acronym stands for the Office of International Relations and derives from Uluslararası İlişkiler Ofisi.

Yemek Kartı
See Lunch Cards

YTL
See TL