Not Your Average Graduation Post

I am incredibly proud to share that I have graduated from the Behavioural and Social Sciences Research Master’s programme Understanding Societal Change, with a specialisation in Social Psychology, at the University of Groningen, with a grade of 8/10.

Over the past two years, this programme has given me numerous opportunities to conduct research on LGBTIQ+ mental and sexual health and to work with incredibly caring and supportive supervisors.

As a student assistant, I worked with Dr. Wouter Kiekens on a meta-analysis examining the prevalence of chemsex among sexually minoritized people, which is currently under review. More importantly, he introduced me to the inter-university network, INQUEERI, of SOGIE researchers in the Netherlands, many of whom became valued colleagues and friends with whom I hope to remain connected.

During my traineeship with Dr. Yasin Koç, who was one of the main reasons I chose this university and has been an important academic and personal role model, I had the opportunity to contribute to two qualitative papers: one examining STI risk perceptions among university students and men who have sex with men, which has been accepted, and another focusing on partner notification, which is currently in preparation. He also gave me the opportunity to lead my own study on the development of two scales informed by these qualitative studies. Finally, for my Research Master’s thesis, I had the privilege of working on a deeply meaningful topic: social identity and mental health among sexual minorities in my home country, Türkiye. This manuscript is currently under review.

Along the way, we presented some of our findings at ASPO 2025 in Maastricht, the European Sexology Congress 2026, and the EASP 2026 preconference.

I decided some time ago that I wanted to become a sexuality and gender researcher, with a particular commitment to representing LGBTIQ+ experiences in Türkiye within academic research. During my master’s at the University of Groningen, I developed many of the skills, experiences, and relationships that will help me continue pursuing this goal.

I am grateful to leave the University of Groningen with so many positive experiences, wonderful supervisors, and dear friends who made genuine efforts to open doors for me and make me feel included. I will carry my appreciation for them throughout my life.

At the same time, I also want to acknowledge some of the challenges that made completing this already demanding programme especially difficult.

As the only student in my Research Master’s cohort from outside the EU and the United States, there were many moments when I felt alone, unseen, and unable to relate my experiences to those around me. I was never explicitly excluded from my group, yet there were times when I did not feel fully included either.

I was able to study in this programme because of the enormous sacrifices made by my family and the support of the Talent Grant and Holland Scholarship. My scholarship depended on me remaining academically successful, not failing any courses, and completing the programme within two years. Otherwise, the modern migration system would kindly remind me that I could be deported.

Because of mandatory military service in Türkiye, I also spent approximately six months dealing with paperwork simply to prove that I was still a student to postpone my service.

Failure was therefore not a privilege I could afford.

During the protests that began in Türkiye on 19 March, while people across the country were taking to the streets to exercise their democratic rights, I remained isolated in my room for two weeks, barely leaving, because I needed to pass my Applied Statistics course.

Yet, within such a competitive academic environment, I sometimes felt that these struggles remained invisible. At times, I felt that I was not taken seriously because I conducted queer research, because my immediate goal was simply to pass my courses, or because I could not develop my quantitative skills at the same pace as some of my peers.

I hope that academic institutions can become more attentive to students from diverse backgrounds and to the particular vulnerabilities and structural barriers they may face.

Despite these challenges, I remain deeply grateful for the opportunities this programme gave me, the people I met, and the researcher I became in just two years.

Imagine what I, and many other brilliant students, could achieve without all these structural barriers.

Finally, I want to encourage everyone to believe in themselves, dream boldly, and never make themselves smaller to fit into spaces that were not designed with them in mind. And to anyone who feels alone or unseen: please know that you can always reach out to me. I hope to offer others the same care, encouragement, and support that I received from my mentors.

Mertcan Mutlu

28.07.2026

Strasbourg, France