The Faculty of Law at Afyon Kocatepe University is one of the youngest law faculties in Turkey. It was officially established by the decision of the Council of Ministers dated June 21, 2010, and the appointment of its founding dean took place on February 9, 2012.
In 2011, construction of the Faculty of Law building began on the university’s main campus (Ahmet Necdet Sezer Campus) with the support of a private sponsor. The construction was completed by the end of the same year. By April 2012, the building’s furnishing and landscaping were finalized, and the faculty became operational. With the start of activities in its own building, administrative and academic structuring efforts gained momentum. In addition to recruiting a sufficient number of administrative personnel, the faculty also appointed academic staff from various disciplines and at different academic ranks—such as assistant professors, associate professors, and research assistants.
As of 2019, the Faculty of Law employed eight full-time academic staff members and 25 research assistants—13 of whom were actively serving within the faculty, while the remaining 12 were pursuing postgraduate studies at other institutions under various academic programs. The faculty was also supported by a total of nine administrative personnel, including a faculty secretary, six administrative staff, and two cleaning staff members.
Before the start of undergraduate education, the faculty organized a wide range of academic and scientific events under the title Postgraduate Seminars, aimed at the 23 research assistants appointed under the Faculty Member Training Program (ÖYP). During the first two years, nearly ten interdisciplinary academic events were held, featuring around one hundred scholars as speakers or panelists, and more than fifty academic papers were presented. These efforts continued after the launch of undergraduate education and became even more diverse. Each semester, the faculty hosted numerous academic events, including at least one national symposium. Several of these events were held for the first time in Turkey by our faculty—such as the National Symposium on Mining Law, the National Symposium on Legal Policy, and the Workshop on the Gezi Park Protests.
In addition to these academic initiatives, the Faculty of Law was authorized in 2013 by the Mediation Department of the Ministry of Justice to organize a Mediation Certificate Program. This marked the beginning of the faculty’s professional training programs. Starting from the 2014–2015 academic year, the faculty also launched undergraduate education after meeting all the necessary criteria. Furthermore, in the 2015–2016 academic year, it launched a joint Master’s Program in Private Law in collaboration with Anadolu University Faculty of Law, and the first cohort of students successfully completed the program’s coursework phase. As of 2019, preparations were also underway for the second editions of both the Mining Law Symposium and the Private Law Symposium.
Thanks to its dynamic academic and institutional development, the Faculty of Law was ranked 18th among law faculties in Turkey in the 2015 national rankings prepared by URAP (University Ranking by Academic Performance), coordinated by Middle East Technical University (METU).
The faculty has successfully integrated into the national Farabi Student Exchange Program, enabling its students to benefit from study opportunities at leading law faculties across the country. In addition, preparations are underway to launch thesis-based master’s and doctoral programs in Public Law, as well as a non-thesis, distance-learning master’s program in Legal Dispute Resolution, in cooperation with the Turkish Justice Academy.