A comparative Analysis of the First Cycle Degree Programmes in Business in Turkey in Terms of the Number of Course Units and the Student Workloads

Abstract

This comparative study aims to determine the differences between the curricula of the first cycle degree programmes in business in Turkey in terms of the number of course units and the student workloads. In this context, (1) the courses included in the Bologna course information packages of business schools on their web sites have been examined; (2) course units have been gathered together in content-related groups, (3) the numbers of course units in each content- related group have been determined, (4) total student workload of each content- related group has been determined by means of the institutionally allocated ECTS credits, (5) the differences between public and foundation business schools have been tested for each content-related group in terms of total number of course units and total student workload, and (6) the differences between the business schools using Turkish and those using a foreign language as the medium of instruction have been tested for each content-related group in terms of total number of courses and total student workload. The methods used in the research are document review and multivariate analysis. The data of 147 business schools has been used in the study and the outputs of the research reveal that there are significant differences in most of the content-related groups between both the business school groupings described above at points (5) and (6) in terms of the number of course units and student workload.