The Social Policies for Risk Groups course, which I conducted with third-year undergraduate students at the Fırat University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, has concluded for the 2025-2026 Spring semester. This 14-week period, excluding examinations, was structured around lectures establishing the fundamental theoretical framework and group presentations involving active student participation.
During the initial weeks of the course, a theoretical foundation was primarily built. In the subsequent period, topics including poverty, social exclusion, children, youth, gender, ageing, migration, new risks in working life, disability, and the climate crisis were addressed. This theoretical framework was supported by mandatory readings, video materials, news analyses, and various in-class activities to ensure the course was conducted interactively.
In the final period of the semester, students delivered their presentations. At this stage, students presented their research on specific risk groups they determined within their self-formed study groups. As part of these in-class activities, topics such as children pushed into crime, seasonal agricultural labour and children, NEET youth’s access to employment, the food crisis and migration, digital exclusion, and individuals with chronic illnesses were discussed.