Teaching Staff Mobility: The IR Experience
While most Bilkenters are likely to be aware of the EU-sponsored ERASMUS Programme student exchanges, the ERASMUS component called Teaching Staff Mobility (TSM) is less well-known. TSM is a system of teacher exchange in which a faculty member spends one week and teaches a minimum of five hours at a partner university. While TSM agreements are often part of more comprehensive ERASMUS exchange agreements among partner universities, individual departments can also enter into bilateral ERASMUS agreements concerning TSM only.
In the Department of International Relations (IR), one faculty member takes part in TSM each academic year. Without exception, TSM scholars return to Bilkent having had positive experiences teaching and interacting with a different group of students, as well as establishing contacts with colleagues at partner universities. Following his TSM visit to Aarhus University (Denmark) in March, Dr. Dimitris Tsarouhas commented: "The TSM experience was very positive. I had a chance to lecture at a different, high-quality university and share experiences with faculty and staff from different departments at Aarhus. I would highly recommend it." In addition, outgoing TSM scholars contribute to making Bilkent better known at partner universities as a potential host for their students on exchange.
The IR Department has also hosted a growing number of incoming TSM scholars. In April, the department hosted Dr. Owen Worth from the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and Dr. Barry Ryan from the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Keele University (UK). Their teaching activities at Bilkent were oriented toward graduate students, and the feedback from students and TSM scholars alike has been very positive regarding the value of their seminar talks and research workshops. As noted by Dr. Ryan after his visit: "The seminars in which I participated were lively and highly stimulating sessions that illustrated, in terms of depth and breadth of knowledge, the high calibre of those studying International Relations at Bilkent. It was a rewarding experience for me to present and critically engage with the responses which emerged from faculty and students, who together made my time at Bilkent very enjoyable."
As in the case of outgoing TSM exchanges, connections between incoming TSM scholars and Bilkent faculty members are also established through more informal interactions, and such connections clearly have the potential to feed into academic collaboration in the future. More generally, TSM scholars leaving Bilkent with a positive academic and personal experience will help to further enhance Bilkent's reputation abroad.
TSM is a valuable component of the ERASMUS Programme, and there is much to indicate that departments throughout Bilkent can benefit from getting actively involved in it. For more information:
http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/bilkent/admission/info_exchange_coordinator/index.html
http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus/teaching_en.htm