Doctoral Program in Financial Economics

The Doctoral Program in Financial Economics aims to provide students with a strong grounding in the theoretical aspects of mathematical finance in order to enable them to contribute towards further developments in the field. Students can follow a career path towards becoming academic researchers and teachers at institutions of higher education, or towards leading research departments in a variety of financial institutions.

Maximum Time to Complete the Financial Economics Ph.D. Program

The program must be completed in a maximum of 12 terms, including 4 semesters of courses and 8 semesters for thesis.

For students who do not have a Master's degree (Integrated Doctoral Program), the maximum duration is 14 semesters, including 6 semesters of courses and 8 semesters for thesis.

Requirements for Completion of the Financial Economics Ph.D. Program

To complete the Doctoral Program, 7 courses, 1 seminar, qualification exam and doctoral dissertation must be passed.

In order to complete the Integrated Doctoral Program, 14 courses, 1 seminar, qualification exam and doctoral dissertation must be passed.

Besides, the qualification exam must be taken latest by the 5th semester of the doctoral program (for the integrated doctoral program: latest by the 7th semester).

Please click here to access the information on the curriculum and minimum graduation requirements for the Doctoral Program in Financial Economics.

Please click here to access the information on the curriculum and minimum graduation requirements for the Integrated Doctoral Program in Financial Economics.

Vision

Our vision is to contribute to academic research into the operations and implications of increasingly complex financial markets with regard to the various stakeholders, so that we can develop stable and free markets for the benefit of society and help allocate resources efficiently for investors in a manner that promotes long-term sustainable development for the economy.

Mission

To focus on an open and active research atmosphere for our students so that they are able to contribute to groundbreaking academic research that can help us evaluate and also improve our financial markets and systems.

Objective

Our graduates should be well prepared for any of the following career paths, based on their interest:

1. Academic research and teaching in any institution of higher education

2. Leading applied research in any private or public-sector organization or institution

3. Entrepreneurship, including advising or consulting firms

Application Process

Candidates create a new user at http://ebs.yeditepe.edu.tr/, access the online application form, fill out the form and make online applications to the Financial Economics Doctorate Program. Following applications, candidates are invited to an interview in September for the Fall semester, in January for the Spring semester and in June for the Summer semester. Successful candidates can start taking the department courses upon completion of their final registration provided that they meet the following conditions.

Admission Requirements

1. Being successful in the department interviews.

2. Having a bachelor's degree from a national or international university whose equivalence is accepted by the Turkish Council of Higher Education.

3. Having a minimum score of 55 from ALES in the program subject area. Candidates who do not have a master's degree must have a minimum score of 80 from ALES in the program subject area. ALES exam results are valid for five years. ALES is not required for foreign students.

4. To have a minimum score of 55 from the YÖKDİL, YDS or E-YDS exams taken in the last five years, or to have a minimum score of 66 from the TOEFL IBT exam taken in the last two years. 

5. For candidates who do not have a master's degree, their undergraduate CGPA must be at least 3.00 / 4.00 or equivalent.

Required Documents for Application:

• Letter of Intent​

• Application Form (You can fill the form by accessing the online application link on the website of Yeditepe University Institute of Social Sciences)

• ALES (minimum 55 points, minimum 80 points for applicants without a Master's degree). ALES is not required for foreign students. 

• A copy of the English Exam Result Document

• Undergraduate and Graduate Diploma photocopies

• Photocopies of Official Undergraduate and Graduate Transcripts (A minmum CGPA of 3.00 / 4.00 or equivalent is required for candidates who do not have a Master's degree)

• Resume in English

• Photocopy of Military Status or Discharge Certificate

Documents Required for Final Registration

• Original and 2 Copies of Undergraduate / Graduate Diploma (Students who have completed their education abroad are additionally required to bring notarized Turkish translations of their documents.)

• Original and 2 Copies of Undergraduate / Graduate Transcript (Students who have completed their education abroad are required to bring notarized Turkish translations of their documents in addition.)

• ALES Result (ALES document is not required for foreign student.)

• Language Exemption Certificate (YDS, YÖKDİL or TOEFL)

• For Turkish Citizens with Foreign Diplomas: Equivalency Certificate from the Turkish Council of Higher Education

• Original Military Status Certificate. (Photocopy of the discharge certificate from those who have completed their military service.)

• Original and Photocopy of Identity Card (Original and Photocopy of Passport and Residence Permit for Foreign Candidates)

• Certificate of residence. (e.g., e-government printout)

• 4 Passport Photographs

Please click here for online application

Bologna Documents for Courses 

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Frequently Asked Matters by Students Related to Their Doctoral Program:

1. Students are required to successfully complete all curriculum courses except FE 699 Thesis  in maximum four semesters if they are accepted with a master's degree, and six semesters if they are accepted with a bachelor's degree. The program curriculum is available in the "About the Department" or "Courses" links on the program website. For every semester, students can select all the courses shown for that semester in their curriculum or they may also spread their courses to  over the maximum time allowed for them to complete the courses other than FE 699 Thesis.
2. Each student entering the program are provided with an OBS (student information system) userid and password, which are needed to access to the student system at obs.yeditepe.edu.tr, during the registration by the Institute. The OBS system also includes your student email and password. You should logon to your student email at webmail.yeditepe.edu.tr and activate it by clicking the activation link emailed to you. Please regularly check both your student email and your messages at OBS. Academic advisor messages are sent through OBS while general announcements, based on their nature, may be sent through OBS, the online student group or the program website. You will use your student email and password to logon to the Yeditepe Moodle System (url address: yulearn.yeditepe.edu.tr) used for courses. Some courses may use Google Classroom while others may use the Yeditepe Moodle System (Yulearn). At the beginning of each semester, each course instructor will provide you with the information regarding the platform used by that course either during the first class or by sending you an OBS message for that course. If you wish, you may download a phone app called YeditepeM, which will allow you to receive OBS messages in your phone. Guides for the OBS system (regarding Course Registration, Course Add-Drop, etc.) and for the Yeditepe Moodle System (Yulearn) are availabe within each system. Students are obliged to follow the course registration dates from the academic calendar every semester, register correctly for the courses they need to register on obs.yeditepe.edu.tr in a timely manner and fulfill the requirements for the courses they are registered for. Course registrations are subject to the approval of the academic advisor (and the Institute). During the add-drop period specified in the academic calendar, students have the opportunity to change the courses they choose at the beginning of the semester.  Please share your active contact information with the Program Research Assistants to join the online student group. Please also feel free to ask the Program Research Assistants if you have any questions.
3. Students, who successfully complete their credit courses and pass their proficiency exam, are obliged to successfully complete their thesis in a way that does not exceed the maximum time spent in the program (i.e., maximum time to complete the entire program is twelve semesters for those admitted with a master's degree and fourteen semesters for those admitted with a bachelor's degree).
4. A doctoral student admitted with a master's degree must take the proficiency exam (also known as the qualifier exam or the comprehensive exam) latest by the end of their fifth semester while a student admitted with a bachelor's degree must take the proficiency exam latest by the end of their seventh semester. The proficiency exam is to measure whether the student, who has completed the coursework, has the knowledge of the fundamental subjects and concepts and the depth for scientific research related to the doctoral study field. Students have a total of two chances to pass the proficiency exam. Students who fail the proficiency exam will retake the exam during the following semester. Students who fail the proficiency exam twice are dismissed from the doctoral program.  If students reach their fifth semester (seventh semester for those accepted with a bachelor's degree) and do not petition to take the proficiency exam or do not take the exam, they will be considered as they failed the exam. If these students do not take the exam the following semester, either, they will be dismissed from the doctoral program since they are regarded as they failed the exam twice.
5. The proficiency exam committee may require students who pass the exam to take extra courses, even if he / she has completed the course work, on the condition that it does not exceed one third of the total credit amount for the coursework required in the program.
6. The PhD thesis monitoring committee must be established within one month after the student passes the proficiency exam. The committee consists of three faculty members. In addition to the thesis advisor, the committee must include one faculty member from the student’s department and one from outside the student’s department. Even if the advisor is a faculty member of the department, a member other than the advisor in the thesis monitoring committee must be from the department. The other member may be a faculty member from another department within the University or from another university. The doctoral thesis defense jury consists of 5 people, including the thesis monitoring committee members. Two members of the thesis defense jury have to be full-time faculty members in another university.
7. After a doctoral student passes the proficiency exam, within one month of the exam result, he/she has to submit an official thesis application (by filling out the relevant form), enroll in the thesis course and, within six months from the date of the exam result, has to defend the thesis proposal in front of the thesis monitoring committee. The thesis proposal covers the purpose, method and study plan. The student distributes a written report on the thesis proposal to the committee members at least fifteen days before the oral defense.
8. Students who do not present the thesis proposal defense within 6 months without a valid excuse are deemed unsuccessful.
9. A student whose thesis proposal is rejected has the right to choose a new supervisor and / or thesis topic, in which case, a new thesis monitoring committee may also be appointed. In such a situation, the students, who want to continue the program with the same advisor and subject, have to repeat the thesis proposal defense within three months while the students who want to change the advisor and thesis subject have to repeat the thesis proposal defense within six months. Students whose thesis proposal are rejected for the second time are dismissed from the program.
10. Once a student’s thesis proposal is accepted, his/her thesis monitoring committee convenes at least twice a year between January-June and July-December, once at the end of every six months. The student submits a written report to the committee members at least one month before the meeting date. In this report, the summary of the work done so far and the work plan to be done in the next semester are stated. In the thesis monitoring meeting, the thesis study presented by the student is determined as successful or unsuccessful by the committee. If students who are failed by their thesis monitoring committee twice in a row or three times intermittently are dismissed from the program. A student, who does not hold a thesis monitoring meeting in any semester, is deemed as failed for that semester. Since students have the right to temporarily suspend (freeze) their registration, it is possible to use their right to suspend registration when they think that they cannot make a thesis monitoring presentation.
11. In order for the student's thesis to be finalized, following the successful defense of the thesis proposal, at least three thesis monitoring committee reports must be submitted, presented and found successful by the thesis monitoring committee. Following this, he/she can apply for a thesis defense meeting. Students at this stage must make an appointment with the Social Sciences Institute Student Affairs to learn about the procedures for submission of their thesis and organization of their defense meeting. Students are required to submit a copy of their thesis to each of their thesis defense jury members at least one month before their thesis defense date.
12. Students who are dismissed from the program at the thesis stage may have the opportunity to reapply to the program. If the PhD courses previously taken are accepted by the department, they may re-start the program at the doctoral proficiency exam stage. Financial obligations concerning this must be personally discussed with theYeditepe University Financial Affairs.
13. Students at the thesis stage are obliged to enroll in the thesis course every semester (excluding the periods in which registration is suspended) until he/she is successful in the defense of their thesis.
14. Doctoral students can freeze (suspend) their Registration for a maximum of three semesters. Students who want to freeze registration for more than one semester must submit a separate registration freeze petition for each semester at the beginning of that semester. The semester in which the registration is frozen is not counted in the time spent at school. For example, if the registration is frozen in the 5th semester, the student's 5th semester is the first active semester after the semester the registration is frozen.
15. Minimum passing grade for a course is CB. For graduation the minimum cumulative grade point average required is 3.00/4.00. Grades lower than this require course repetition.
16. In order to graduate  the minimum ECTS credits completed must be 240 ECTS in the Doctorate Program and 300 ECTS in the Integrated Doctorate Program. In order to reach the minimum ECTS totals required at graduation, students who select a course from the "elective" line should not choose courses with lower ECTS values ​​than those shown in their curriculum.
17. The above information is based on the relevant official regulations for graduate education and is provided to assist you as a preliminary step. However, there may be complications or time issues, and rules may change. Therefore, you must always confirm any information regarding your status, your specific time limiations, rights and obligations and other details related to your degree program with the Student Affairs at the Social Sciences Institute. Similarly, you must confirm any information regarding your tuition and other financial details with the Yeditepe University Financial Affairs (02165780000 - 1253/1264/1276). The original documents of official regulations and directives for the graduate education can be obtained from the University website or from Student Affairs of the Institute of Social Sciences.