Abstract:

Higher religious education in Turkey is implemented by the faculties of Theology/Islamic Sciences. The count of these faculties exceeds 100, and the number of students exceeds 124 thousand. Educational institutions are under the influence of their internal and external stakeholders. Their achievement depends on meeting the expectations and needs of their stakeholders. One of the most important internal stakeholders of educational institutions is students. The opinions of students are a substantial source of data in the determination and analysis of the current state of institutions and the preparation of strategic plans for the future. In this context, it was aimed to determine and evaluate the internal and external factors affecting the faculty with SWOT analysis, which is one of the most basic methods used in the current situation analysis, in accordance with the opinions of the students of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences of Kütahya Dumlupınar University (KDP). To access the data, a semi-structured interview form was used within the scope of the qualitative research model. The obtained findings were subjected to content analysis. The results were discussed in the context of scientific research in the field, and some recommendations were put forward. Some conclusions were reached about the strengths and weaknesses of the KDP Faculty of Islamic Sciences, as well as the facilities and threats it carries. Student opinions about the strengths of the faculty are concentrated on the fact that the faculty building is new and versatile, the quality of the teaching staff, the provision of single-gender education, the availability of a preparatory class and art workshops. As for the weaknesses of the faculty, the themes related to the high number of courses, overcrowding classrooms, excessive student quota, lack of the sufficient number of teaching staff in their own fields, remoteness of physical location, and the curriculum came to the fore. The themes of healthy and efficient teacher-student communication, having exchange programs, organizing social events, and having wide job opportunities after graduation were highlighted in the category of faculty opportunities. It was observed that the opinions of the students about the issues that they perceive as a threat are collected more on themes such as reduced job opportunities due to the excess number of current and graduate students, and reduced quality of education due to the excess number of students.

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