The Ottoman Empire which was by far the greatest and the most powerful of the Turkish states spread through the ages, reached its zenith in the Seventeenth century marked by the second siege of Vienna. Its define has been attributed partly to its inability to follow the developments in science and technology.
Several attempts to provide technical training in the Empire were made in the seventeenth century with no success. The failure has been blamed on the resistance of the rebellious janissaries, and the religious fundamentalists to reforms of all sorts. Finally, a school mainly to train military engineers was launched during the reign of Sultan Mustafa III, in 1776. This final effort appears to have been precipitated as a result of the annihilation of the Ottoman armada by the Russian fleet in the Aegean (1770) The Admiral, Hasan Pasha of Algiers, who suffered the defeat as a result of the incompetence of his predecessors, realized that the existing institutions of higher learning, the religious colleges (medrese), were in no position to improve the situation.The Sultan himself had been familiar with the scientific and the technical advances made in the West, thus probably shared the same views.
Sultan Mustafa III finally decreed in the year 1773 that the Imperial Naval Engineers' School be established at the Golden Horn. The first teachers appointed were Seyyid Hasan of Algiers and a Hungarian: Baron de Tott. The Italian priest G.Toderini refers to this school in his "Literature Turchesca" as the Academia It is interesting to learn that the first students were "..grey bearded sea wolves and sixty year old disciples"
Soon, new members were added to the staff including an Englishman Kampell Mustafa, a convert to Islam; and a Frenchman named Kermorvan, under the new principal Seyyid Osman. A Department of Civil Engineering was opened in 1784 and more members were added to the staff: Le Roi and du Reste (naval engineering), Major Lafitte Clavet and Capt.Monier (military and civil engineering), Francois Petolin(cannon testing),Capt. Saint-Remy (artillery), and Tondul (astronomy). Lecture notes in Turkish were being printed on a small press at the French Embassy.
Sultan Selim III ascended the throne in 1789,determined to thoroughly modernize the empire. He inaugurated the Imperial Civil Engineers School (Muhendishane-i Berri-i Humayun) in 1792 in an attempt to diversify teaching. He also issued an imperial decree (Kanunname) in 1795 to regulate the engineering schools. It stands as a unique document in the history of technical education. Among several innovative approaches, it made clear that civilians of any social status could be admitted as students and that the schools could employ civilians regardless of their religious nomination. The school even introduced French as a required foreign language in addition to Arabic. In 1805, an official of higher standing than the Principal was appointed with the title of" Minister of the Muhendishane" whose main function appears to have been to increase the prestige of the school.
The growing opposition to Sultan Selim IlI's reforms culminated in an armed revolt in 1808. He was dethroned and finally murdered. His nephew Sultan Mahmud II however carried on with the reforms. It was decreed in 1825 that the Imperial Naval Engineers School be separated from the Muhendishane. 1826 however was another unfortunate year. The janissaries revolted again, but this time the people and the loyal troops took to the streets to fight against outmoded, disorganised and now reactionary core of the military. Students and graduates of the Muhendishane had amply vindicated the hopes of its founders by helping to wrench the Empire from the clutches of religious fundamentalism.
Muhendishane-i Berri-i Humayun continued its separate existence until 1847, while the Muhendishane-i Bahri-i Humayun (the Imperial Naval Engineers School) was moved to the Heybeli Island in the Sea of Marmara. Muhendishane-i Berri i Humayun continued its military and civilian activities until 1847. One of the important activities during this period was an investigation for the diversion of the River Sakarya into Lake Sapanca and connecting the system into the Bay of Izmit in the Sea of Marmara (1813), thus connecting the Black Sea to Istanbul.
Hoca Ishak, from Yanya (lonnina) was a remarkable teacher at the Muhendishane during the reign of Mahmud II. He published a four volume treatise, Journal of Mathematical Sciences (Mecmuai Ulum-i Riyaziye) that included engineering subjects as well as natural sciences. A comparison of his reference list with the contemporary literature of the time shows that he was very much Up to date on his subjects of interest (1834).
A number of civilian engineering schools were founded following the establishment of the Ministry of Public Works in 1839 to cater its needs for technical personnel. These schools were however short lived and were eventually incorporated into the Muhendishane.
The years between 1847 and 1909 can be called the period of adjustment in the school. In 1847 a high school and a four year college were established. The reformed school had the faculty of civil engineering and the war academy. Several young members of faculty were sent abroad to be trained as future professors. An overemphasis seems to have been placed on martial arts and the related engineering problems, due to efforts to reconstitute the Ottoman Army at this time.
Several reorganizations took place between 1847 and 1878, and the Sultan granted permission for addition of the "Hendese-i Mulkiye", the Civilian Geometry School to the Muhendishane. Year 1883 marks the separation of civil and military engineering classes. Instruction in the Hendese-i Mulkiye was of a duration of three years in the high school section and the remaining four in the college. The school was a boarding school, free of charge. It was now able to draw talented students from the other high schools without requiring an entrance examination, unlike the military section. The curriculum was modeled after that of the Ecole des Ponts et Chausees in Paris. Prominent names in engineering education were recruited from abroad to improve the standard of teaching. It is on record that the famous Austrian professor of hydraulics P. Forchheimer was added to the faculty in 1891 with an incredible salary of the equivalent of $15000 per month. This suffices the importance placed on technical education at the time.
The school was fully separated from the military branch in 1909, a year after the declaration of the Second Constitutional Monarchy. The name was changed to Muhendis Mektebi (Engineers' School) and was attached to the Ministry of Public Works. The transformation of the original Muhendishane from a semi- military school to that of an entirely civilian institution of higher education was now complete.
The number of Gasses was reduced to six under the new administration. lt. had to change its premises repeatedly between 1909 and 1922 because it had no buildings of its own. It was homeless a couple times after the allied forces occupied Istanbul in 1918 and evicted the School. It naturally went through the political turmoil of the country during the war of independence, reflected by the fact that the classes of 1913 and 1922 produced no graduates. The founder of the modern science of Soil Mechanics, Karl Terzaghi served at the school between 1916 and 1918 when the foundations of his later work at Harvard University were laid.
The occupation of Istanbul officially ended in 1922 following the victory of the Turkish Nationalists under the command of Mustafa Kemal, later Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic which was declared in 1923.
The republican administration was quick to realize that one of the sturdiest foundation stones inherited from the Empire was the Muhendis Mektebi, the Engineers School. The government duly transformed it to "Yuksek Muhendis Mektebi3, the Engineering Academy, in order to emphasize its status as a University in 1928.
The Academy was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works until 1941. It was transferred to the Ministry of Education subsequently, and three years later, finally became the Istanbul Technical University under the law No.4619, in 1944.A further act (No.4936) passed in 1946 granted legal status and autonomy to the University which at that time, consisted of the Faculties of Architecture, Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. The duration of studies were reduced to five years from six enforced previously. The development of the University from that time on was so rapid that by 1977, the number of Faculties had reached fifteen.
The instruction programs were revised in 1969 to transform the courses from the five year "Diplomingenieur" to a four year license programme equivalent to a B.Sc. degree. Graduate programmes were inaugurated in 1973, after the students admitted to five year courses had all graduated.
New legislature passed in 1981 (No.2547) following a military coup, brought yet another revision to the academic organization of the ITU as well as completely upsetting the University system in Turkey. The Board of Higher Education (YOK) thus created was put in charge of the academic activities, ranging from the appointment of Rectors to the election of Professors.
The Faculty of Engineering at Macka was dissolved during this latest revision; the Faculties of Metallurgy and Chemistry were merged; the Engineering Academy at Adapazari, and the Merchant Marine School at Tuzla near Istanbul were incorporated; the former Faculty of Fundamental Sciences was transformed into a Faculty of Sciences and Letters; and the new Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics was created.
The University now consists of eleven faculties; two graduate schools, two vocational schools, a marine academy, a conservatory as well as three service departments. Although the New Universities Law has removed the autonomy of the Universities in Turkey, which had hitherto helped them to establish a competitive and democratic milieu in the early eighties, the ITU continued its development and expansion.
As of October 1991, the University had 296 professors, 237 associate professors, 145 assistant professors and a total of 1067 lecturers, instructors and research assistants supported by double that amount of technical and administrative staff. The number of students had reached 22350.
The Istanbul Technical University boasts among its graduates, the current President and the Prime Minister of the Republic, scores of past and present government ministers; several leading industrialists and businessmen. The name of ITU and its insignia has become identical with engineering research and training throughout the Middle East. The number of research projects and annual consulting done by the members of Faculty exceed those undertaken by any University in Turkey.
Kaynak: 1992 ITU Katalogu, ITU Yayinlari, Istanbul