Education in Basic Sciences:
The Bilkent Experience over the Last 33 Years

Science education is important for all the countries in the World.

We want our Greatest Minds in Science.

In this regard, employment statistics is important: How likely are you to get a job when you graduate?

Life after university education

This is a subject that students, families and teachers frequently ponder over when the time comes to decide.

“What are my employability opportunities?” & “What are my career prospects?” are regular questions. This is particularly relevant for basic sciences, and it remains to be explicitly demonstrated that “career success” and “an economically safe future” are frequently achievable for basic sciences graduates.

We now have data on the outcome of our educational activities during the past 33 years from 1989 to 2022 comprising of 2478 Bilkent undergraduate and graduate students. This data has the power to provide quantitative information.

You can access the data here:

Why follow the alumni?

  • Present evidence-based information to our prospective students and their parents for an informed decision-making process,
  • Demonstrate to the current students that a secure future lies ahead of them,
  • Reiterate the tireless commitment of our faculty to education by exposing the exemplary success of our students,
  • Contact our alumni members to facilitate their interactions with their alma mater and provide an incentive to return home.

Here is what we observe when we analyze the data:

  • We reached 95% of our graduates (total 2355; PHYS 92%, MATH 95%, CHEM 96% and MBG 97%).
  • The graduate employment rate of Bilkent Faculty of Science is 91.2% (PHYS 90%, MATH 90%, CHEM 86% and MBG 95%).

This is a commendable success, when compared with the employment level by course of study in developed countries: 90.6% for biological sciences, 88.8% for physical sciences and 88.9% for mathematical sciences.

Comparison with top 15

When we compared the graduate employment rate of Bilkent Faculty of Science with the top 15 ranking universities in the world, we observed that Bilkent ranks at the sixth position (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022).

https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/employability-rankings/2022

Mission and outcome

The mission of Bilkent Faculty of Science is to “become a center of excellence for science” and “educate the next generation of outstanding scientists”. The sectoral distribution of our graduates demonstrate that Bilkent Faculty of Science fulfills this mission: 60% academia, 29% private, 3% public and 3% education. This is an exemplary success with 1267 graduates currently working at top research institutions and universities in Türkiye and around the world.

Distribution of Academic Ranks of Bilkent Faculty of Science Graduates

  Academic Ranks Number
1 Professor 67
2 Associate Professor 76
3 Assistant Professor 148
4 Scientist/Instructor 145
5 Post-doctoral Researcher 265
6 PhD Student 298
7 Master’s Student 268

The universities where Bilkent Faculty of Science graduates are most frequently employed:

Türkiye

  University Number
1 İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University 144
2 Koç University 47
3 Middle East Technical University 39
4 Dokuz Eylül University 23
5 Hacettepe University 23
6 İzmir Institute of Technology 22
7 Ankara University 17
8 Boğaziçi University 17
9 Sabancı University 15
10 İstanbul Technical University 14

Europe

  University Number
1 Munich University 21
2 Max Planck Institute 20
3 Heidelberg University 12
4 ETH Zurich-Karolinska-Cambridge 10
5 EPFL-KU Leuven-TUM-Bonn-Cologne 9
6 Helmholtz Center 8
7 Konstanz University 7
8 Radbound-Tübingen-Zürich 6
9 Berlin-DKFZ German Cancer Research Center-Leiden-Dresden-Basel-Geneva-Milano 5
  The numbers are for each university.

USA

  University Number
1 Stanford University 9
2 Cornell-Harvard-UCLA-UT Southwestern Medical Center 8
3 The Ohio State-UC Berkeley-U Massachusetts 6
4 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai-Princeton-Rockefeller-UT Austin-Yale 5
5 Boston-CalTech-Columbia-Florida State-MIT-North Carolina State-Northwester-Michigan-NYU-Pennsylvania-Washington-Wisconsin 4
  The numbers are for each university.

The public sector institutions where Bilkent Faculty of Science graduates are most frequently employed

  Institution Number
1 TÜBİTAK 35
2 Aselsan 12
3 Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education 5
4 Roketsan 4
5 The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye 4
  The numbers are for each institution.

The private sector institutions where Bilkent Faculty of Science graduates are most frequently employed

  Institution Number
1 Amazon 7
2 Akbank-ASML-Garanti BBVA 6
3 Sanofi 5
4 Genentech-HSBC-Intel-Novartis-Oligomer-Pfizer 4
5 Amgen-Apple-Arçelik 3
  The numbers are for each institution.

Geographical distribution: Continents

The geographical distribution of Bilkent Faculty of Science graduates shows that approximately 51% live in Türkiye and 49% abroad.

  Continents Percent
1 Europe 49
2 North America 45
3 Asia 4,65
4 Australia 0,95
5 Africa 0,4

Geographical distribution: Top 10 Countries

  Countries Number
1 Türkiye 1089
2 United States of America 443
3 Germany 216
4 The Netherlands 60
5 United Kingdom 58
6 Switzerland 55
7 Canada 34
8 Sweden 21
9 Belgium 17
10 Italy 14

Geographical distribution: Top 10 Cities

  Cities Number
1 Ankara 532
2 İstanbul 314
3 İzmir 67
4 San Francisco 51
5 New York 44
6 Munich 44
7 Boston 28
8 Cambridge 27
9 Berlin 26
10 London 22