The fate of higher education in Turkey depends upon the general election

The Failure of the YK as an Alternative to the Democracy of Turkey’s Higher Education: The Case of Boazii University

Last June, academics from 13 Turkish universities held a 2-day workshop in Ankara to discuss how to restructure Turkey’s higher education. They produced a report that was submitted in December to all political parties, calling for YÖK to be replaced with a new body, which has more limited functions. If the NationAlliance, led by Kemal Kldarolu wins the election, it will implement this recommendation.

In the 11 general elections since the restoration of civilian rule in 1983, political parties have pledged to abolish the YÖK. The AKP has been in power since 2002 and is led by the current president, Referring to it as the Justice and Development Party. Yet never in 21 years has the AKP attempted to follow through. Like other governments before it, it has instead used the YÖK as a convenient centralized tool for imposing its ideology.

But this was also something of a turning point. I served on the Boazii University executive board and chaired a senate subcommittee on restructuring university governance. I was one of the professors who filed several lawsuits against the university and the YK.

Because science is in the public eye, I think there’s a chance for change. The value of science is being appreciated by people after the devastating earthquakes in southeast Turkey. Scientists had been warning the public and policymakers for years about the consequences of such an earthquake and had made the scientific evidence readily available. It is clear to many that lives could have been saved had the science been heeded.

perverse incentives are included in these systems. In 1993, Turkey began paying academics for each paper they published internationally. The tenure claims have been assessed using a scoring system dominated by international publications. This has boosted the number of publications but has also increased instances of author–citation networks, dishonesty and predatory publishing.

Turkey’s Scientific Council: The 100th Anniversary of the Emergence of the Modern Republic and the Challenge of the Abolition of the Council of Higher Education

Nature approached Turkey’s science council and YK. The science council was unable to arrange interviews before this article went to press. YK did not respond to questions about it.

This year, Turkey is marking the 100th anniversary of the formation of the modern republic. “We cannot go into the new century of the republic like this; the next 100 years cannot be like this,” says Taner Bilgiç, an industrial engineer at Boğaziçi University, and another co-author of the report.

The formation of a board of trustees is one of the things that the AKP promised in it’s election manifesto. It pledges to increase the number of graduate students.

METU says zgven received the most votes for the position in 2016 and was duly elected by academic colleagues. The election results were revoked by YK, and the second place candidate was appointed.

The YK ordered more than 8,500 university staff to resign after the failed coup. Turkey’s president had the power to appoint or dismiss university Rectors without having to get approval of faculty in public and private universities when the emergency was lifted two years later. In 2021, academics and students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul protested against the appointment of a rector who was not a faculty member. Around 40 students were arrested and 16 academics were suspended at the time, and protests are continuing.

The Council of Higher Education, known as YÖK, was established in 1981 after a military coup. YK continues despite the fact that Turkey has had many elected governments. It appoints faculty, approves teaching courses, and sets student numbers.

Ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey, a group of researchers called for the abolition of a government council that they said had too much power over the nation’s universities.

The opposition alliance agrees that it is time for the council to go. The governing party did not respond to calls to axe body and hire and fire academics.