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ACTIVE AROUND THE WORLD

More than 2,500 university clubs are active at the 146 universities in Turkey. Among these societies, which help students socialise and offer them the first rung on the career ladder, there are even some that reach beyond the country’s borders and put their name to international events.

NOT SOMETHING JUST ANYONE CAN DO

Erdem Genç, managing partner of www.uniaktivite.net, which gives an award to the most active club every year, says that students stage activities that events companies would struggle with. “The clubs’ budgets combined are almost as big as a holding company’s,” says Genç.

At university, the road to a social life runs through the student clubs. These clubs, which are often the first step on the career ladder, offer students wrestling with their coursework a sphere of activity through which to take part in life, and they also lay the foundations of lasting friendships. Sport, culture, art, engineering, ceramics, literature, debating, careers, robotics, aviation, space, theatre, music… There is a student club active in every field you can think of. Among them are small, self-sufficient groups that organise seminars, talks and panels, as well as those that stage international events and bring continents together. For example, Koç Üniversitesi’s Debating Club, which brought 1,350 students from 60 countries together in Antalya, holds a notable place. But the university with the most active clubs is Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi… How do I know? From the website www.uniaktivite.net, the university media outlet and social communication network that holds a competition every year and gives awards to the most active clubs.

HE BROUGHT THEM ALL TOGETHER

In this year’s “Most Active Club Competition”, in which 525 clubs took part, first place went to Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi’s IEEE Club in science and technology, İTÜ’s Industrial Engineering Club in business and careers, Anadolu Üniversitesi’s Outdoor Sports Club in sport, Hacettepe Üniversitesi’s Dance Sports Society in art, Ankara Üniversitesi’s Mülkiye Public Studies Society in thought and general culture, and Pamukkale Üniversitesi’s Genç TEMA Club in social responsibility. We spoke to Erdem Genç, managing partner of Üniaktivite, which has succeeded in bringing hundreds of clubs together. Also an award-winning photographer and an accomplished musician, Erdem Genç, a mechanical engineering graduate of YTÜ, says there are more than 2,500 active clubs at around 140 universities in Turkey. According to the information Genç provides, clubs’ membership generally ranges from 20 to 4,000 people.

A BUDGET OF 90,000 LIRA

“Student clubs organise activities each more interesting than the last, ones that even events companies would really struggle to pull off,” says Erdem Genç. “What’s more, the total one-year budget of these activities, whose individual budgets range from 1,000 TL to 90,000 TL, is almost equal to that of a mini holding company. Activities at universities in the big cities in particular make more of a splash. But in Anatolia, too, there are clubs doing wonderful work despite the lack of resources. Five of the 18 clubs that won awards in the competition we organised are from Anatolia.” So what kind of vision does joining a club offer a student? Erdem Genç answers our question as follows: “The opportunities that clubs offer university students are too many to count. It is really a small simulation of the ‘business world’, where competition has become ever tougher these days and which everyone is desperately trying to get into. We might call clubs a laboratory that prepares university students for working life, enables them to take the initiative and offers endless opportunities. There are a great many successful people who took their first step in the clubs. For example, AKUT’s president Nasuh Mahruki came up through Bilkent Üniversitesi’s Mountaineering Club.”

DISCOVERED BY THE BUSINESS WORLD

I ask Erdem Genç, “How do businesspeople view these youth organisations?” “The business world looks very warmly on young people, because they are aware that the leaders and managers of the future will emerge from among them,” he replies, and goes on: “Besides, the first point of contact at university for a brand that wants to do youth marketing is the student clubs, which have the ability to organise quickly and can come up with new projects. As a result, the budgets companies set aside to stay in constant touch with them and to support their activities are growing by the day. In addition, businesspeople are very frequently taking part in university activities as speakers or guests and meeting young people.”

ASK HIM WHAT’S HAPPENING ON CAMPUS

Through the website www.uniaktivite.net, of which he is co-founder, 27-year-old mechanical engineer Erdem Genç acts as a guide for those who want to develop themselves, not miss out on activities and keep up with what is happening on campus. “So far 500 university clubs and 200,000 members are registered on our site,” says Genç. “But we are in constant contact with the clubs. Not just online, either: once a month we meet club presidents and committees at themed gatherings that we call ‘Club Meet-ups’. We provide promotional sponsorship for the activities the students put on.”