Qualifying Exam

All students enrolled in a PhD program at Boğaziçi University have to take a Qualifying Exam (Yeterlik Sınavı) after completion of their coursework and before starting to work on their PhD thesis. The exam covers material from graduate courses but can also include other topics that are deemed to be important by the Qualifying Jury and which were not formally covered in graduate or undergraduate courses. The aim of the exam is to test the student’s technical abilities, the examine his/her scientific knowledge, and to evaluate his/her ability to conduct research and teaching in the general area of the student’s Academic Program (Department). If the jury intents to include questions on topics that were not covered in courses, the student should be informed about the content to provide the opportunity to study and to prepare for these topics.

A PhD student may choose to take the Qualifying Exam right after completion of the mandatory coursework (i.e., during the time before registration for the next semster) or to delay the Qualifying Exam for up to two semesters. Students, who choose to take the exam during the subsequent teaching term have to register as "Q" students and cannot take any courses during the Qualifying Semester. A “failed” Qualifying Exam may be repeated until the end of the following semester; however, under all circumstances a PhD student MUST successfully complete the Qualifying Exam by the end of the 5th (students admitted with MSc) / 7th (students admitted with undergraduate degree) semester after starting the PhD program (not counting the remedial semesters).

The “Qualifying Exam Jury”, which is composed of 5 full-time faculty members, is proposed by the student’s Thesis Advisor and finalized by the FBE Executive Committee. The Qualifying Jury must be set up before the start of the final exam period of the semester at the end of which the Qualifying Exam is to take place. The student’s Thesis Advisor chairs the Qualifying Jury, which must include one non-BU faculty member and three members from the student’s Academic Program’s “Qualifying Committee”. The Academic Programs usually declare pre-determined time windows for the execution of Qualifying Exams (this is frequently the week following the completion of the final exams or the week preceding the registration period of the following semester). Students must document their “English Profiency” (through a successful performance in a IELTS, TOEFL, ÜDS or KPDS exam) before taking their Qualifying Exam.

The Qualifying Exam incorporates a written part and an oral part; the written part may be given as an in class exam and/or as a take home exam. The result of the Qualifying Exam may be, i) Unconditional Pass, ii) Conditional Pass (condition being the student’s taking one or more additional courses in the area(s) that he/she is deemed to be weak), iii) Fail. This result is proposed by the student’s Qualifying Jury and finalized by the Academic Program’s Qualifying Committee.