Some 5,600 Syrians enrolled at Turkey’s universities: AFAD

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

AA photo

Some 5,600 Syrian students have been enrolled at universities across Turkey while 1,080 have received scholarships, the head of the country’s Disaster and Management Authority (AFAD) has said.

“We currently have around 5,600 Syrian university students,” AFAD chair Fuat Oktay told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, noting universities located around the country’s border with Syria had accepted many refugees in accordance with quotas set by the Higher Education Board (YÖK).

The system is evolving as current intakes are based on exam results but efforts continue to standardize the process, Oktay said.

“Some 1,080 of the enrolled students are receiving financial aid, in the form of scholarships,” Oktay added.

The disaster agency’s chair also provided information on a newly established database used to keep track of Syrian students called the Foreign Student Information Operating System (YÖBİS). Accordingly, information on how and where each student is receiving education is followed via the system. 

In addition to the 5,600 university students, some 330,000 Syrian children are receiving formal education at state schools, Education Minister Nabi Avcı said in April. 

Oktay also said during a speech at a Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) conference in Washington that only around 30 percent of school-age Syrian children had access to education. 

“We will provide access to education to 450,000 by the end of 2016 and to all 900,000 Syrian children by 2017,” Oktay told the audience, adding that Turkey needed the support of international organizations in order to provide education to all refugee children.