Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU) is one of the new state universities in Turkey. There has been a massive increase in the numbers of students and faculty members since the foundation of the university. The number of students in COMU has drastically increased from 1200 students in 1992 to 25.000 students in 2008. Similarly, The numbers of students and faculty members in the department of education has increased from 350 students and 25 faculty members to 4500 students and 120 faculty members. SWOT analysis is a common technique which can be used in preparing or amending plans, in problem solving and decision making for institutions. Performing SWOT analysis involves generating and recording the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relating to a given task. It is usual for the analysis to take account of internal resources and capabilities and factors external to the organization. The strategic planning and swot analysis are most important elements to analyze the efficiency of universities and faculties. The aim of strategic planning is to produce planned facility, embody the appointed policies, follow the application efficiently and take the initiative and provide the effective participation. The importance of swot analysis is clear in providing unity in institutional practices. Institutions function can be realized with the attempts of administration and its efforts on researches and strategic planning. This expansion of COMU was taken into consideration by the researchers. A SWOT anaysis was applied to the department of education to describe the strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats of department of education. The statement of problem was what was the level of efficiency in the department of education. The research aims at determining the deficiencies and strenghts of the department of education in terms of the perception of faculty members. Furthermore, the expansion and strategic planning of the departement of education will be compared the results of SWOT analysis to see the efficiency of strategic planning to meet possible expectations.

During the February 2008 faculty meeting, faculty members participated in a SWOT activity that led to both individual and whole-group recommendations for the faculty's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Following this activity, members of the SWOT Analysis Committee analyzed the data in order to identify any patterns, themes, and trends. During the May 2008 faculty meeting, faculty members were asked to verify the results of this analysis and revise as necessary. In this study, the SWOT analysis of the Faculty of Education in COMU has been accomplished in the following 9 stages: 1. Establishing the objectives, 2. Selecting participants and contributors, 3. Developing research and information-gathering tasks, 4. Organizing focus-group meetings, 5. Identifying the Strengths, 6. Identifying the Weaknesses, 7. Identifying the Opportunities, 8. Listing the Threats, 9. Evaluating listed ideas against objectives

The central recurring theme throughout all four categories of the SWOT analysis seems to be internal faculty/staffing issues. For example, many of the strengths and opportunities suggested seem to rely on academicians, and most of the weaknesses and threats seem to be related to restrictions caused by structural issues (lack of funding, workload, support staff, etc.). These factors also stem from the fact that the degrees offered by the faculty of education are in great demand, in part as a result of the Coucil of Higher Education's decision to increase the number of students for the each department at the faculty without considering faculty's internal resourses. Two major themes emerged from the Strengths category: academic oportunities and organizations, and EU exhange programs.Two major themes emerged from this category: teaching workload issues, salary issues, and support/resources.