Education chief calls for reform

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Newly appointed chairman for The Council for Higher Education (YÖK), Prof. Dr Gökhan Çetinsaya, said Turkey’s higher education system needs to be rehabilitated and is considering how best to move forward.

Çetinsaya said there is a consensus among society that there is a need for reform and is going to bring the issue to the parliament.

“The legitimacy of YÖK will no longer be based on its bureaucratic power, it will be based on the power of universities,” Çetinsaya said. YÖK was set up after the coup d’état in 1982, he added.

“It was founded during an extraordinary time in order to ideologically control the universities. What we need to do now is to equalize our university system with a normalized Turkey. YÖK will be more colorful, more active and better qualified.”

YÖK is responsible for the supervision of Turkish universities, but is currently primarily thought of as an institute of punishment. Çetinsaya said he wanted to change this understanding. “In the future I hope YÖK will serve as the coordinator, facilitating activities across universities and raising their profile abroad,” Çetinsaya said.