No country can progress, develop, and prosper unless it keeps providing quality education to its youth and keep promotion of science and technology on its top priorities. Those countries are considered fortunate which have visionary, dedicated and committed leadership who give top priority to international compatible and high-quality education in its policies and lift its nation towards the new sky and help it to have highly dignified and respectable place in the communities of the world. Brother Islamic country Turkiye is one of them.
Education is the matter of nation’s pride and soul in Turkish policy. Science and Technology in Turkey is centrally planned by TUBITAK and in responsibility of universities and research institutes. Research and Development is given top priority by Turkish government and it has shown a significant jump in recent years. Turkey was ranked 41st in the global activities in 2021 and has increased in ranking considerably in since 2011, where it was ranked 65th. Tertiary enrolment has grown rapidly to accommodate and no fewer than 30 universities were funded between 2016 and 2019, 20 of which are public institutions. By 2018 gross enrolment ratio was 109.5%, and the number of doctoral students has risen by 22% to 95,100 since 2015. There are around 820 higher education institutions including universities with a total students’ enrolment exceeding 1 million. Many universities in Turkiye are providing education and facilities at par with International standards, the technical universities are often compared with universities in the United States of America and are regularly visited by the US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and their engineering programmes deemed substantially equivalent to comparable programmes in USA.
Turkiye due to it quality of education, friendly atmosphere, world’s high-ranking hospitality, is a favourite destination for International students. There are number of universities with high ranking which attracts international students including Istanbul University, Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University, Bogazici University, Koc University and others.
Following were the statistics of International students in 2021-22.
Degree Male Female Total
Associate Degree 19,585 17,850 37,435
Bachelor’s Degree 115,974 69,758 185,732
Masters Degree 19,457 11,042 30,497
Doctorate 7,092 3,660 10,752
Total 162,108 102,308 264,416
In recent years , it has been noticed that there is an excellent demand for International students to study in Turkiye, and this is due to the existence of a group of reasons that drive these students to come to Turkiye with the aim of studying in Turkish universities.
§ The turkish envirinment is student friendly
§ It is not difficulkt to adopt to Turkish soceity
§ Cheap cost of Tution fees in Turkish Universities compared to other universities around the world.
§ Turkish scholarship are offered annually by the Turkish government to International students, which often include tution fee, travel and University housing.
§ Many universities majors take the English language as a basic subject in education, so there is no need to worry about not being fluent Turkish language
§ The stromg infrastructiure owned by the public and private Turkish Universities and therefore obtaining a graduate degree in these universities includes a high value for students.
§ Turkiye ranks among top five in Europe and among top ten in the world in international students, the students enrolled in various universities and institutes, are from 182 countries around the world.
Higher Education in Turkiye 2017-18
Total Number of Academic Staff
Number %
Male 87,863 56
Female 70,235 44
Total 158,098 100
Professors
Numbers %
Male 16,944 69
Female 7,696 31
Total 24,640 100
Ph.D. faculties members
Numbers %
Male 21,588 58
Female 15,932 42
Total 37,520 100
Associate Professors
Number %
Male 8,845 61
Female 15,611 39
Total 14,456 100
Total Number of International Students (2017-18)
Number %
Male 4,047,302 54
Female 3,513,069 46
Total 7,560,371 100
Associate Degree
Number %
Male 1,424,366 51
Female 1,344,391 49
Total 2,768,757 100
Bachelor’s Degree
Number %
Male 2,292,542 54
Female 1,949,299 46
Total 4,241,841 100
Master’s Degree
Number %
Male 277,781 61
Female 178,922 39
Total 454,673 100
Doctoral Degree
Number %
Male 54,613 57
Female 40,487 43
Total 95,100 100
Students by Country
Country No of Students
Syria 58,213
Azerbaijan 34,247
Iran 22,632
Turkmenistan 18,250
Iraq 16,172
China 1,445
India 549
Somalia 2,801
Egypt 9,597
Afghanistan 2,877
Yemen 8,198
Jordon 7,266
Palestine 5,705
Sudan 5,171
Bulgaria 5,120
Besides these countries Greece 2,614, Kosovo 1,190, Albania 1,051 are also worth mentioning. Number of Russian students are also studying in Turkiye. Other countries with significant numbers of students, include Uzbekistan 4,794, Indonesia 4,662, Pakistan 4,171, Kyrgyzstan 2,026 are also worth mentioning.
Turkiye is the second country in the world in access to higher education with 94.2% schooling rate. Turkish education and degree are recognized worldwide including European Union. Turkiye is one of the most successful countries participating in the exchange programme under Erasmus+.
There are 208 Universities in Turkiye with a population of 84 million. The number of students is more than eight million. With this number of students, Turkiye is the first country with the most students in European Higher Education Area. There are more than 45,000 different programmes at 208 universities.
Since Pakistan is a very close friend of Turkiye and people of Pakistan like and admire Turkiye very much therefore there is need to create awareness among Pakistani students to take the advantage of Turkish Higher education opportunities and build a strong career with it. I personally know number of students who have done their Ph.Ds. from Turkish universities and they admire the atmosphere there and the quality of education.
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