President Erdoğan unveils new university project

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 4 announced the new Council of Higher Education (YÖK) Anatolia project, which will enable lectures and projects in new universities in Anatolia with senior human resources of other universities.

“We will ensure that young academics in these regions benefit from the publications of senior universities and carry out joint projects. The project is carried out entirely on a voluntary basis by lecturers from established universities,” Erdoğan said, speaking at the project introductory meeting of the YÖK.

The president said that students of 15 new universities would take some courses from senior lecturers of 12 universities with the YÖK Anatolian Project.

He also announced a new project, “YÖK Academic Career Merit Project.”

“We will bring together all our academic candidates, who have completed their doctorates of Turkish or foreign nationality, and our universities seeking faculty members on this platform. We will launch this project, whose preparations have been completed, as of next week,” he stated.

“It is a study that will enable the respected professors of the world’s leading universities to teach in our country through distance education. That will enable our students to step into international integration and meet with different academic cultures,” Erdoğan said.

The principle of social justice lies behind the government’s decision to establish universities in every province of Anatolia, Erdoğan said, noting that the low-income youngsters, or the ones who were not able to register at universities due to social-cultural reasons, would now have the opportunity of education thanks to these universities.

The number of students in Turkey’s universities has increased to 8 million, he said, adding that the country ranked first in the number of universities accessed in Europe.

“Our female students have an important place in this increase. The ratio of our female students at universities, which was 42 percent before, has increased to 49 percent as of this year,” he stated.

Turkey has performed better than many European countries in terms of quality, Erdoğan said.

Today, more than 200,000 students from all over the world are getting an education in Turkish universities, he added.

According to UNESCO’s data, Turkey has been among the first 10 countries in the world to attract students, Erdoğan stated.

The universities in Turkey are no longer a copy of each other as they now offer different values, he added.

“There are those who seek to protect their jurisdiction with old habits, but they will understand that they are the country’s universities,” Erdoğan said, criticizing some university establishments, but did not name them.