Within the scope of the major continuous improvement cycle initiated by the Graduate School every four years, activities are carried out taking into account the four-year strategic goals of the Graduate School.

• In this process, the general operation and structure of graduate programs are evaluated and improvement proposals are gathered through consecutive meetings held with the members of the Advisory Board.
• A Continuous Improvement Commission is established for each graduate program.
• In the latest improvement cycle, all graduate programs (at both Master's and PhD levels) were requested to redefine their program outcomes in alignment with the outcomes defined by the Council of Higher Education (CoHE/YÖK).

• In accordance with the "Directive on the Improvement of Graduate Programs", the Improvement Commissions were requested to examine the graduate curricula of at least two universities ranked among the top 50 universities in the world and to perform benchmarking against the current program.
• These benchmarks aim to improve existing programs, identify new courses proposed to be opened, and review current courses.
• Commissions are expected to convene the program academic board and perform the following actions:
  • Identify courses that need to be phased out
  • Update course contents
  • Evaluate proposed new courses

• Updated catalog files of all courses are uploaded and updated on the official system via designated program coordinators or Graduate School staff.

Within the framework of continuous improvement activities, two independent external evaluators are assigned to each program, ensuring a multi-faceted assessment of the program.

• External evaluators are provided with pre-structured questionnaires which they are expected to answer during the evaluation.
• Within the scope of the evaluation, the following topics are addressed:
  • Program outcomes
  • Number of graduate students per faculty member
  • The size and experience level of the academic board
  • Infrastructure and equipment facilities
• The resulting external evaluator reports and feedback are forwarded to the members of the respective program commission, and subsequently, improvement proposals are evaluated and action steps are determined through consecutive meetings held together with the Director and Assistant Directors of the Graduate School.

Improvement proposals regarding the programs are brought to the agenda and evaluated in the Graduate School Executive Board.

• New course proposals, content updates, and course closure requests are decided upon in this board.
• During the decision-making process, special attention is paid to ensuring that proposals align with the Strategic Objectives of the Graduate School.
• Proposals approved by the Graduate School Board are submitted to the Senate to complete the necessary official processes.

Within the scope of the minor continuous improvement cycle conducted annually by the Graduate School, the results of graduate student and alumni surveys are forwarded to the respective programs.

• Feedback received from students and alumni through these surveys allows programs to be updated in a dynamic manner.
• Based on this feedback, the Program Executive Board and the Continuous Improvement Commission can submit their proposals regarding new course openings or syllabus updates to the Graduate School every semester.
• These proposals, once discussed and approved by the Graduate School Board, are evaluated and put into effect by the Senate.
• The questionnaires and reports containing the responses of alumni and student surveys implemented to date have been presented to the relevant stakeholders to ensure the transparency of the process. In these surveys, the attainment level of program outcomes was specifically measured.

In parallel with the strategies identified within the scope of the Research Responsibility Area, the Graduate School's proposal on preparing a "Doctoral Thesis from Articles" has been approved by the Senate.

• Through this practice, students are encouraged to produce at least three journal articles indexed in SCI-Exp, SSCI, or AHCI.
• Additionally, for students who started their PhD studies in the Fall semester of 2011–2012 and thereafter, it has been decided that at least one article indexed in SCI-Exp, SSCI, or AHCI must be prepared from the PhD thesis as a graduation requirement.
  • These requirements have been diversified for certain doctoral programs, such as Architecture and similar fields.

Furthermore, "The Most Successful Doctoral Thesis Awards" are presented to encourage high-quality theses prepared in the fields of basic sciences, engineering, and architecture.