This year, at the 33rd ILDEK Deans' Council Meeting hosted by Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Communication, Deans of Communication Faculties addressed the sector of communication education and artificial intelligence. Science communication, law, curriculum, science and artificial intelligence were just some of the agenda items.

The 33rd Communication Faculties' Council Meeting hosted by Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University on May 29–30, 2025 brought together deans of communication faculties, academicians and sector representatives from Türkiye and the Türk Republic of Northern Cyprus. In the meeting, where Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Communication Dean Prof. Dr. Emre Tandırlı also actively participated, current issues of communication education, science communication policies and technological transformation were among the main agenda items.

One of the prominent names of the meeting was Fatma Çiğdem Savaşçıoğlu, Press and Public Relations Advisor of the Council of Higher Education. Savaşçıoğlu stated that applications such as “Science Café” will play an important role in strengthening the university-society bond within the scope of Science Communication Office projects launched under the roof of YÖK, and said, “Producing science is very important, but producing is not enough, it is necessary to make it visible, to explain it and to take it outside of four walls… We believe that the time to describe our country with shish kebabs and fezzes has passed, and the time has come to introduce it with science and scientists.”

RATEM President Aydın Şerbetçioğlu, who attended the meeting, also drew attention to the need to strengthen the bond between communication faculties and the sector, and said, “A healthy publishing culture cannot develop in an environment where the academy stays away from the sector. A rights-based, ethically sensitive professional understanding that students come into contact with publishing practice can only be built together.” RATEM General Manager Yusuf Gürsoy drew attention to the transformation experienced in digital publishing in particular, and emphasized that universities should prepare students for the field with not only theoretical but also application-oriented curricula. The vision of cooperation of the Faculty of Communication of Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University in this field was shown as a good example by RATEM.

The subject of digital transformation with artificial intelligence was also at the center of the meeting. İLDEK Permanent Member Prof. Dr. Asaf Varol, “Journalists of the future will probably have artificial intelligence do most of their work. Artificial intelligence will be an important area of ​​support for television broadcasters of the future. Filmmakers of the future will make films that we can’t even imagine today with the possibilities of artificial intelligence,” he said, and summarized the professional dimension of the technological disruption in a striking way. However, Varol stated that the human factor is still the most critical element with the words, “Technology is very important, but the role of those who use and operate it will be much more decisive. Let’s not forget that technology is just an apparatus.”

Üsküdar University President Prof. Dr. Nazife Güngör clarified the conceptual confusion regarding the status of academic staff and reminded YÖK’s clear stance with the statement, “There are full-time teachers, not part-time teachers.” He also emphasized the importance of the common curriculum by saying, “Courses such as Introduction to Communication and Communication Law must definitely be on this basic standard basis.”

Prof. Dr. Fevzi Kasap, Dean of the Faculty of Communication of the Near East University, who participated from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, stated that there were deficiencies in the assignment of associate professorship juries to TRNC universities and that this issue should be brought to the agenda of the Inter-University Board. Kasap also suggested that the academy-sector meetings should be increased and said, “It is very important for professional careers for professional organizations to establish direct contact with academics and students in such events.”

Opinions on the use of databases in scientific research were also shared at the meeting. In this context, the raising of standards in academic publishing and the correct use of open access resources were emphasized. International academic databases such as EBSCO, which Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Communication actively uses, were cited as examples among the elements that strengthen the research capacity of both students and faculty members.

Just like ÇAMÜ Boutique, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University's newly established BAIBU Boutique project, both with its mission of benefiting the society and the effort to make scientific outputs visible with the BAIBUİLEF-IG (2024-2025) symposiums organized by BAIBU Faculty of Communication in the last two years, was evaluated as a model that overlaps with the YÖK Science Communication policies at the meeting. At the same time, the importance the faculty attaches to accreditation processes, sectoral collaborations and sectoral-based applied course structures were shown among the concrete indicators of the sustainable quality target in communication education and were shown among the exemplary institutions.

In the vote held at the end of the meeting, Kocaeli University won the right to host CIDA 2026 and Gaziantep Hasan Kalyoncu University won the right to host İLDEK 2026.

The decisions taken today shape not only today but also the communication literacy, academic ethical standards and professional competencies of media professionals in the future. Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Communication continues its work without slowing down as a strong institution that does not observe but directs, thinks and takes action in this transformation. With the vision of the Türkiye Century, in the construction of an even stronger Türkiye of the future, on the way to raising the communicators of the future, by giving direction to science, technology and artificial intelligence, by performing rather than watching, by not being played but by setting up games, as the determinant of progressive strategies, we will continue on our path with determination and sure steps, God willing, always together.

News: Prof. Dr. Emre Tandırlı