Sabancı University hailed for its ‘innovative spirit’

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Science Technology Minister Nihat Ergün, Sabancı Holding Chairwoman Güler Sabancı and Deputy Rector Hasan Mandal pose for photographers.

Sabancı University received an award for ranking at the top of the University Entrepreneurship and Innovation Index, presented by Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün yesterday.

Speaking at the ceremony Güler Sabancı, who chairs Sabanci Holding, said only an investigative and enterprising culture could move countries forward toward progress. “This new culture, which is taking baby steps in our country, now underlies the foundation philosophy of our university. We are proud to say that Sabancı Unviersity sets an example for Turkey.”

Sabancı Deputy Rector Hasan Mandal made a presentation at the ceremony in which he said the university benefited from an active research fund of 50 million Turkish Liras with support from both public and private institutions. According to figures provided by Mandal, the research fund provides 245,000 liras per academic with which Sabancı University ranks first among the whole academic institutions in Turkey.

The University Entrepreneurship and Innovation Index was compiled for the first time in Turkey this year. The top five universities in the index are, according to rank, Sabancı University, Middle East Technical University, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, Özyeğin University and Istanbul Technical University.

Universities with a faculty of fewer than 50 members were not included in the rankings, Ergün said.

Therefore ranking included only 126 of the 168 universities in Turkey.

The index included five aspects in its ranking, namely scientific and technological research competence, intellectual property pool, cooperation and interaction, culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, and economic contribution and commercialization.