Over 165,000 foreign students seek scholarships: Minister

ANKARA - İHA

Around 165,691 applications have been received from 171 countries for “Türkiye Scholarships,” a government-funded higher education scholarship program for international students, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has announced.

“The number of students to graduate in the 2021-2022 period is 2,325,” Ersoy said at the graduation ceremony of international students studying in Türkiye, adding that they welcomed 300 students from 74 countries at undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.

“When we consider that the number of U.N. member states is 209, the fact that 15,000 international students are continuing their education from 145 different countries in Türkiye is the clearest indicator of how wide a geography the program has reached around the world,” the minister added.

“We have adopted a scholarship strategy in which we take into account the views of the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the needs of Türkiye,” said Abdullah Eren, the head of the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB). He noted that the number of international students studying at university in Türkiye, which was 20,000 some 10 years ago, is now around 240,000.

With the Türkiye Scholarships program, approximately 4,000 students are awarded scholarships each year, and approximately 2,000 students are enrolled in the graduate program, Eren said.

Established in 2010, the YTB has the task to coordinate the activities for Turks living abroad and related communities and develop ties through economic, social and cultural activities.

Türkiye Scholarships offers a range of programs designed for each level of study, including full-time and short-term undergraduate, graduate, research and language education opportunities in the most prestigious universities in Türkiye for international students and researchers.