QAFQAZ UNIVERSITY Baku, Azerbaijan

QAFQAZ UNIVERSITY

Baku, Azerbaijan

Foundation

Qafqaz University was founded in 1993 with the decree of Azerbaijani National Assembly and the approval of Council of Ministers. This way, Turkish businessmen started their voluntary contributions to educational services through Cag Educational in Azerbaijan after its independence. Qafqaz University is the first and the only foreign private university in Azerbaijan.

Mission

Our mission is to give our students a university education at international standards and infuse them with enthusiasm to constantly reach for new horizons. Great care is also taken to endow them with the sense of respect for national and universal values. We also aim to play an active role in promoting cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Combining the present experience of Turkey in various fields such as law, administration and technical know-how along with the positive sides of a completely different political and administrative background that Azerbaijan comes from, the university has undertaken a role of being an educational bridge between Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Campus

Qafqaz University operated in three temporary service buildings in Baku from the day it was founded until the 2003-2004 academic year.

The Khirdalan campus area was granted to the university with the efforts of the late President Khaydar Aliyev. We moved to our new premises in the 2003-2004 academic year. The new campus acted as a major contributory element that has enabled the university to make a lot of progress ever since. As a result of this, the number of the departments reached twenty-two; student population rose dramatically to around 2700; and a dormitory building for male students was built in the 2005–2006 academic year.

Currently, the construction of the building for the Coordinating Unit for Language Teaching and the dormitory for female students are about to be finished.

Educational System

The university is the first educational institution authorized by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Education to have a ‘Pilot Status’ in applying its own curriculum. Accordingly the programs of western universities have been taken as a model in preparing the curriculum. In doing so, a ‘credit system’ was put into practice for the first time in Azerbaijan a long time ago. The credit system has played an important role in the university’s transition into the ECTS (Bologna process).

The University offers B.A, B.Sc., M.A., M.Sc., and PhD programs together with a joint MBA program that started this year.

Top Rated Private University

According to Azerbaijani State Student Acceptance Committee, the university has been the most preferred private university since 1996. Qafqaz University comes first among the private universities in filling the student quota given by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Education. In the journal published by the State Student Acceptance Committee, it is stated that:

“Qafqaz University has acquired the best place among the private universities. Also in previous years, it was seen that this educational institution deserved the best rank among all the private universities. At this university there is good organization, students receive close attention, and students who entered the university with high scores benefit from discounts in educational fees. Besides they are granted scholarships. The university always tries to help its graduates find jobs. As a result of these incentives, this university is generally preferred by brilliant and hardworking students who get high scores in the university entrance exam. Four of the students who are granted Presidential Scholarship are from Qafqaz University.”

Educational Programs

B.A. / BSc. (4-5 years)

Engineering

Industrial Engineering; Computer Engineering; Computer Systems and Networks

Economic and Administrative Sciences

Finance and Credit; International Economic Relations; Public Administration; Banking; Political Science; Business Administration

Law

International Law; International Relations; Business Law; Region Studies (European Studies).

Pedagogy

Mathematics; Physics; Information Technology; Primary School Education; Azerbaijani Language and Literature; Turkish Language and Literature; Arabic Language and Literature; English Language and Literature; Translation and Interpretation.

M.A. /M.S. (2 years), MBA (1,5 years)

English Language and Literature; Turkish Language and Literature; Arabic Language and Literature; IT and Programming ; Public Administration ; Finance and Credit; International Economics Relations; Bank Management; Public Administration; Business Administration; MBA (Business Administration); MBA (Finance and Credit); International Law; Computer Science; Information Management Systems.

Ph.D (2-5 years)

Turkic Folk Literature; Computer Engineering; World Economics; Public Administration.

TOEFL Examinations

Qafqaz University is the first institution where the TOEFL iBT, new generation TOEFL test, can be taken thanks to its high speed internet connection and recently refurbished computer lab.

CISCO CCNA Center

There are many CISmCO CCNA centers in the world, but the good thing about having it at the university is that the CCNA curriculum has been integrated into the B.Sc. curriculum so that the students can easily sit certification examinations without an extra effort.

BSUN Membership

Qafqaz University is a member of BSUN.

Laboratories

Despite the fact that Qafqaz is a social-sciences oriented university, it strives to provide the best practical experience for the students in a few engineering departments through Logic Design (Electronics) Lab, Physics Lab, Simultaneous Translation Lab, Computer Lab, Language Labs, Chemistry Lab, and CISCO CCNA Lab.

Research Centers

The following centers welcome joint research projects:

1. Caucasus Research Center: History, Literature and Culture (Dr Mehmet Rihtim, mrihtim@yahoo.com);

2. Center for Research on Municipalities: Development of municipalities in Azerbaijan (Dr Ugur Arif Bolek, ugurarif@hotmail.com);

3. Center for Energy and Security: Regional and worldwide energy diplomacy (rovshen@azerimail.net);

4. Center for Information and Communication Technologies: Applications in education (Dr Xeyyam Masiyev, xmesiyev@qafqaz.edu.az);

5. Center for International Conflicts: International conflicts, security, and terrorism (Dr Reha Yilmaz, ryilmaz@qafqaz.edu.az)

6. Center for Private Law: Issues related to private law in Azerbaijan (Dr Server Suleymanli, ssuleymanli@qafqaz.edu.az)

7. Center for Economic and Social Development: Issues related to economic and social problems of Azerbaijan as well as the region (Dr Murad Isgandarov, misgenderov@qafqaz.edu.az)

Continuous Development Center

The center offers training to the business world as well as all kinds of academic institutions. The center also plays an active role in keeping track of graduates, organizing job fairs, and helping students get placement in prestigious companies for internship.

Distance Learning

The Distance Learning team set up last year is now working on a pilot module that will be tested in our intranet. The number of DE modules will be increased firstly in the ‘service’ classes, i.e. common subjects offered to a larger audience, then in MBA, and then in correspondence classes, and finally in a B.A. program to the highest extent the laws permit.

Translation Center

The center initially serves the needs of the translation of official university documents, along with several cultural and scientific articles and books. It also addresses the public requests.

International Quality Management Certificate

Qafqaz University is the first higher educational institution which runs the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System in Azerbaijan.

International Cooperation

The university aims at establishing strong links with institutional all over the world. The number of student and faculty exchanges is increasing year by year.

Recent international academic projects and programs participated by the institution: Dual diploma program with Troy University, Alabama, USA on MBA; joint diploma with Chalmers IT University of Gothenburg; Faculty exchange with UNI, USA; TEMPUS NIROA project with 3 national and 5 European universities.