ANKARA - Turkish-Japanese Science and Technology University, a joint project agreed on by the two countries in 2013, opened Monday in Ankara, offering undergraduate courses in engineering and doctoral programs in artificial intelligence and earthquake science.
Around 80 students are enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering, with its electrical and electronics engineering and computer engineering programs attracting students with high exam scores, according to the university.
In their first year, the students will take English and Japanese language courses before beginning specialized studies in those languages in their second year, it said, adding that it aims to have around 600 students by 2030.
The PhD programs in earthquake and disaster science and AI and digital technologies are starting with a small number of students. Master's programs will also open in 2027, it said.
The university collaborates with the Institute of Science Tokyo, the University of Tsukuba and the University of Tokyo. It also hopes to organize internships for its students in cooperation with Japanese companies, it said.
In 2013, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now Turkey's president, agreed to establish the university.
The university initially aimed to train personnel for a joint project involving the Japanese government and companies to build a nuclear power plant in the Black Sea coastal city of Sinop.
But the university changed its plan after the Japanese partners withdrew from the nuclear project amid ballooning costs.
The university's council includes experts from both countries, such as Ryoji Noyori, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001.
