ERASMUS EXCHANGE PROGRAMS AND APPROACHES FOR ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION

Abstract

The Erasmus+ Higher Education Program is a European Union program aimed at promoting the multifaceted cooperation of higher education institutions in Europe. Within the scope of the Erasmus+ Program, academic collaborations (cultural collaborations, research projects, curriculum development studies, etc.), student exchanges (short-term education abroad, cultural cohesion, etc.) and in graduate and undergraduate education are being highlighted under the European point of view. Since 2004, Turkey has begun to take part in the Erasmus+ program and data according to the Anadolu Agency; in this 14-year period, approximately 450,000 people benefited from this program. Yildiz Technical University, an important state university in Istanbul, Turkey is actively involved in the Erasmus program since the beginning of the process with its different faculties. Within the scope of the paper, the results of the studies or lectures carried out with the help of the Erasmus student exchange program will be discussed compared with the education of the Architecture Department of Yildiz Technical University. The aim of the study is to present the differences and similarities of the theoretical courses and project courses in exchange programs and students options on the importance of the Erasmus program by the written evaluations and bilateral discussions with the students. It is thought that the results of these feedbacks and evaluations will give important contribution to the development of educational curricula. Within the scope of the paper, it will be tried to reveal briefly the importance of Erasmus exchange programs, which are felt to be less effective in recent years due to different sociological, political and global reasons, in the context of evaluations of students.