Ayşe Soysal

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Prof. Ayşe Soysal (born 1948) is the current President of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. She has occupied this position since August 2004.

[edit] Biography

Born in 1948, she received her high school diploma in 1967 from the American College for Girls in Istanbul. She received her bachelor's degrees with high honors in Mathematics and Physics from Robert College in 1971.

Prof. Soysal pursued further education in the United States, where she received her master's(1973) and doctoral(1976) degrees in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

She was appointed as a member of faculty in Bogazici University's Department of Mathematics as an assistant professor (yardimci docent) in 1976. In her long term of instruction Prof. Soysal was renowned as a polite and student-friendly professor. She was appointed associate professor (docent) in 1981 and full professor (natively profesor) in 1991.

Prof. Soysal also held office as vice dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and the chairman of the Department of Mathematics. Between 1992 and 2004 Soysal was elected dean of the School of Arts and Sciences for four consecutive terms. She also represented Bogazici University in the Interuniversity Council (Universiteler Arasi Kurul) and she held board membership for the Turkey branch of UNESCO.

She was appointed as the president (natively rektor) of Bogazici University in 2004. She is notable for being the only woman who occupied the office.

Since then Prof. Soysal has been subjected to criticism regarding some of the decisions she made running the school. The first of which is her declaration of "the top five universities in Turkey", which as many argue was based solely on personal experience as there is no notable university ranking mechanism in Turkey. Secondly, Soysal was the gathering point for criticism when the University first decided to host, then cancelled the organization of a conference on the "Armenian Conflict" or the alleged Genocide. However, Soysal's stated policies and attempts ,including the improvement of academic services in spite of dire circumstances the Turkish Government provide state universities with, hold her image as a president intact and prominent.