Guiding Principles
Robert College, the oldest American school outside the United States, was founded in Istanbul in 1863. Over the years, the school has developed a unique educational program reflecting its American and Turkish roots. We honor our past and carry it proudly into the future.
We empower students to go where their minds take them. This orientation is reflected in all aspects of Robert College life. Being student-focused means that we put student interests first, supporting student agency and respecting student perspectives and voice. It implies a spirit of partnership in teaching, learning, and living at Robert College among the faculty, staff, and students.
We equip students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences from which to build a successful future by ensuring all aspects of a young person’s life (intellectual, physical, social, moral, creative and emotional) receive the attention they deserve. We strive to ensure that RC students develop the skills and values embodied in the RC Scholar student profile.
The RC program gives students an exceptional foundation in mathematics, natural sciences and all academic subjects. This is complemented with an exceptional array of welfare, co-curricular and athletic activities, ensuring that students have the opportunity to explore existing interests, discover new passions and learn through service to others and their community. Robert College leavens its traditional program with an emphasis on creativity, innovation, risk-taking, and socially-minded entrepreneurship. We teach our students to work collaboratively, connect academic disciplines, and communicate effectively in diverse settings. We emphasize fluency in English and prioritize achieving it.
Our exceptional student body interacts with our outstanding local and international faculty outside the classroom, including break and meal-times, weekend and evening interactions, and one-on-one work with students. Faculty and staff go beyond in loco parentis responsibilities and develop healthy relationships with students that extend beyond the classroom with the aim of nurturing capable, caring, and engaged adults who respect themselves, others and the natural world.
We place great emphasis on care and community. At Robert College we ensure that students feel a sense of ownership and belonging, and that they are known and cared for as unique individuals.
The Robert College campus operates as a hub of connections to the wider Robert College community, bringing multiple generations together to build stronger ties.
Robert College students learn democratic values and practices through engagement with their peers and the wider Robert College community, exercising civic/community rights, and acknowledging that with rights come accountability and responsibility.
Robert College is proactive in promoting the emotional and mental health of its community members, students and adults. Our commitment to both welfare and personal growth is registered in many programs such as the Well-being, CIP and Advising strands within our GROW program. Alongside traditional skills such as leadership and rhetorical skill, we emphasize crucial soft skills emerging from self-reflection, empathy and listening.
We compare and assess ourselves against the most successful schools in Turkey and the world. Robert College maintains a list of benchmark global schools that demonstrate the level of success and distinction to which Robert College aspires. Benchmark schools are selected for their capacity to inspire, provide models, and enrich our understanding of the best of schooling. We prepare our students to navigate the world as citizens prepared for life both in and out of Turkey.
We have an International College Counseling/University Placement system that is a benchmark quality program. We measure our performance on ultra- competitive international university admissions compared to our benchmark schools.
Our scholarship program ensures that excellent students from all over the country, regardless of financial means, are able to enjoy the full Robert college program. Currently one in four students receives financial aid.
The Robert College community accepts the responsibility of providing the resources necessary to ensure that Robert College remains a world-class institution offering a world-class educational experience for each student. Robert College considers alternative revenue streams and enhances development activities to reduce its reliance on tuition income and the endowment. Robert College balances the long-term needs of the school with meeting the needs of the present.
