Science,Technology, and Society

Program

This Master’s Degree Program was founded in 2016 as one of the programs of the Social Sciences Institute of Istanbul Technical University. The program started to take students in the Fall semester of 2016-2017 Academic Year. Each course, except non-credits (Seminar), is 7,5 ECTS. Students are expected to complete 60 ECTS in courses as well as to fulfill the thesis writing criteria (60 ECTS) in one of the topics of STS within at most three years. They complete 120 ECTS in total. The program’s language is English. It is the only Master’s Degree Program with this name in Turkiye. The program has Erasmus+ connections with “Science Studies” Master’s Degree Program of Aarhus University, Denmark and “Science and Technology Studies” Master’s Degree program of Munich Technical University, Germany. Education in both programs are English.

The Aim of the Program

Technology is one of the factors affecting our form of life in today's world. The process starting with the Copernican Revolution and the construction of modern science helped the Industrial Revolutions to occur. The Industry 4.0, characterized by information and communication technologies, smartphones, smart homes, biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, accumulation of big data in virtual realm and social networking, is the precursor of the new age. Transformations in the last decades destroyed the stereotype thinking in social, economic, political and cultural sphere. Therefore, this transformation should be evaluated not only from a technical perspective, but also from historical, political, sociological, cultural, ethical and philosophical perspectives. In developing countries such as Turkiye, which not only uses technology effectively, but also tries to create its own style through innovation and entrepreneurship, this becomes highly critical. “Science, Technology and Society” Master’s Degree Program aims at filling this gap through building a bridge between humanities and social sciences and science and technology studies.

Mission of the Program

In compliance with the mission of Istanbul Technical University, this Master’s Degree Program in Science, Technology and Society was established «to widen the borders of knowledge in science, technology and arts and fulfill the needs of society with the applications of this knowledge.” This program helps us understand and solve ethical, social, cultural and political problems created in the complicated structure of modern technological society by integrating the subjects of humanities and social sciences and those of science and technology studies.

Application Criteria