History of ESOGU Faculty of Theology
Eskişehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Theology was founded with the decision of the Council of Ministers numbered 1995/7515, and the founder dean was appointed on 19.07.1996. The Presidency of the Council of Higher Education, in a decision dated 27.01.1998 and numbered 212, authorized the establishment of the Departments of Basic Islamic Sciences, Philosophy and Religious Sciences, and Islamic History and Arts. The founder dean, Prof. Dr. Mehmet MAKSUTOĞLU, served until 2006. Prof. Dr. Ali ÇELİK, who was appointed as dean after him, served between 2006 and 2012. In 2012, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin AYDIN was appointed as dean until 10.01.2018, and then Prof. Dr. Mustafa YILDIRIM served as dean until the end of December 2023, when he retired due to the age of retirement. Prof. Dr. Adnan ADIGÜZEL took over as dean on 11 March 2024.
ESOGU Faculty of Theology has started to accept students at the undergraduate level since the 2008-2009 academic year. Our faculty started undergraduate education at “Çamlık 2 Campus” with 41 students in the 2008-2009 academic year. After fifteen years, our faculty continues education and training at “Meşelik Campus” with 1300 students in the 2024-2025 academic year.
After the Department of Primary Religious Culture and Moral Education (İDKAB) was transferred from the Faculty of Education to the Faculty of Theology in 2012, the undergraduate education in Theology, which was previously taught in two main departments, namely "Theology" and "Primary Religious Culture and Moral Education," has been exclusively conducted by the "Theology" department since 2014, when no students were admitted to the İDKAB department. From the 2009-2010 academic year to the 2024-2025 academic year, the Faculty of Theology offered dual education in the form of daytime education and evening education. No students have been admitted to evening education since the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Department of Basic Islamic Sciences at our institution has established master's degree programs since the 2009-2010 academic year and PhD programs in the 2013-2014 spring term. The Departments of Philosophy and Religious Sciences and Islamic History and Arts have established master's and doctoral programs since the 2010-2011 academic year. However, the doctoral program of the Department of Islamic History and Arts is currently inactive, as of 2024. Approximately 300 master's and doctoral students, affiliated with the ESOGU Institute of Social Sciences, are studying postgraduate education in our faculty as of 2024.
Our faculty's undergraduate department typically admits 280 students annually, but since the 2024-2025 academic year, we have only admitted approximately 140 students for daytime education. Currently we have a total of 1600 students, including undergraduate and postgraduate (MA and PhD) students. Students who enroll in our faculty receive one year of Arabic language preparatory education, followed by four years of undergraduate education. As of 2024, our faculty's academic staff comprises approximately 60 academicians, and it has been growing continually.