OFF-UNIVERSITY ”We started the idea with peace”

We have started to our third day with a nice breakfast at 9 o’clock. Then we have left the hotel to go to our first meeting of the day with an academician, Doc. Dr. Tuba İnal Çekiç, one of the founder of Off-University, Organisation für den Frieden (Organization for Peace). She have been studying in city planning department in Yıldız Technical University as an associate professor, has come to Berlin for a year as a visiting researcher, but they have called back her to Turkey because she was one of the signers of the Academics for Peace petition. After this incident, she is deemed resigned from Yıldız Technical University. By their words, “it was established for and by academics from Turkey yet addresses itself to academics all over the world: academics who have been purged from their institutions, forced to resign, who was legally and politically persecuted and even imprisoned because of their opinion and research, by anti-democratic regimes and those who seek to speak up against these practices in solidarity.” We have sat at a cafe owned by a Turkish people, have drinked some tea and coffee while talking about all the issues they are dealing with.

Working for Peace

Of course our first question how the idea has started in the first place. Firstly, they were 15 scholars in Berlin and needed to find a way to survive in a different country, and secondly it was something that they already know, how to deal with these problems: they have lost their students, they don’t have right to back to their country etc. The solution to all their problems was technology and the internet, because they could reach their students with freedom, and it was also free for students to attend a course. So they have come together, worked on the idea of online courses and began to develop the idea. In Mai 2017, they have founded an association with 26 people. But also they needed a kick-off as she said. The first kick-off event was the online-conference named “Though Questions for Peace”. Their description:

“The conference was focusing on how peace can be achieved in polarized and conflict-ridden societies by turning to armament and conflict as factors putting the planet, all living beings, including humanity, at a great risk.”

Besides, their foundation had a really interesting name. It was called “Off” because it was outside of the mass media and in Turkish language, “off” is an expression to show boredom. Mrs. Çekiç said us that at first, some academicians didn’t like the name of the submit. They thought that it had a negative meaning but as time goes by lots of people has started to like it, especially young people like us.

Shoulder to Shoulder with Academicians

And they had online seasons too. She said that they were giving an hour when the presenter (that is what they prefer to call the professor who give lectures at Off-University) will be online, so that the attendants (they’re using it instead of students) can have discussion by chatting with them online. For instance, the site has been formed for online conferences but there is also some interaction, not face to face, but interactive. And this is how the lecturing part work: The academician who is Berliner finds a tandem partner from Turkey or anywhere who is dismissed from his/her job. So for example, the first tree weeks the academician in Berlin will give the lecture from there and then his/her partner will continue to give the lesson online. The academician in Berlin will be payed by the university they he/she already working with and his/her tandem partner will be payed by the Off-University. By the way generally the courses focusing on social science for now and their courses not at university level, anyone who is curious enough can learn something from Off-University. Plus, huge part of this project is translation. Right now Turkish, German and English are being used but they want to be multi language so there can be students all around the world. Also the important part is that the attendants is anonymous for their security, their IP numbers are not collected, no one knows who they are, where they came from.

Workshop about online-teaching

This is a very new for most of this academicians and for the students too, because they’re not used to it. So they are making a workshop about online-teaching to learn to do it in the best way together. She also mentioned that they started this without money, step by step it builds itself up. After some time, the project was well-accepted by the German media, the Turkish media and some German universities.

Off-University working with some regulations for not allow sexist or racist speech to happen. They are controlling the index each courses. At this point, the universities receive some of their responsibility for accredited courses in their syllabus. On the other hand, the professor can give the lecture voluntarily and they have to find a tandem partner but also determined according to criteria the Off-University. professors dismissed who can not reach their students like Academics for peace. So, they have made an open call for support where any academicians can be a volunteer to give lecture or anyone can give financial support, promoting their events in media etc. they also made a Crowd Founding where they made a video and collected some money.

3 Step based

In the future, she said that they will give five online-courses with credits for the two universities that they accorded. They made an open call for support where any academicians can be a volunteer to give lecture or anyone can give financial support, promoting their events in media etc. too. Off-University started with 3 step of objectives: doing online course, doing online conference, make people know this online courses. In the future, they can add a 4th step about the credit courses with deal some university and people can certificate or graduate.

To our question about the approach of Turkish government and if they can be stopped by the government, she answered with saying it’s internet, it’s free, the least thing the government can do will be to block access from Turkey but it won’t create an issue. Or maybe the government can use the site at the court but it won’t again change anything because unfortunately the government already labeled her and her friends who signed the petition as well as a terrorist.

From this part our conversation leaded to a little bit different subject. We started to talk about Turks in Berlin. She said that the Turkish communities are divided in two opponent opinions. The immigration population in Berlin started in 1960’s with those who came as workers. They came in Berlin unknowing, without any money, most of them didn’t even know how to read and write, they were uneducated. In 1980’s, these people are getting their family and being permeant with arrived the communist, they established a refugee association and started to search their right. But since then community changed, people who changed, there were a lot of exiled ones.

The word “integration” is a key word when talking about the immigrants and refugees but actually this word means a negative approach. Generally when they learn a language or do something together, they define it “integration” and believe the problem is solved, but not.

When she came here a year ago, she was planning to stay for a year, she came with her family. But she was struck off like many others who signed the petition for Peace. In that time, as she said, nobody was there but they started to come.

Right now, she doesn’t feel herself as an immigrant yet, she wants to continue what she working on it. ‘Off-university’ is growing and expanding day by day, at this point, they have to be more careful and they have to plan their next steps, she said. But also she has to continue her daily life, even her project stopped by TUBITAK, she wants to finish and publish your research in the future.