With 200 plus universities offering nearly 50,000 programs, it is no surprise that the higher education system in Turkey could attract more than 200,000 international students in 2021 alone. This rising popularity as a popular study abroad destination has also helped the Turkish economy to generate nearly USD 1 billion in revenue. Some of the top sender countries of students to Turkey are Syria, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan. The popular streams many of these international students choose are healthcare and business. For international students, Turkey also offer myriad of scholarships. This is on top of the cheap tuition fees in many of the top educational institutions in the country. All this makes Turkey a much more appealing option for international students as the cost of higher education in most other top study abroad destinations are increasing rapidly.  Still, there are multiple areas of concern when it comes to higher education in Turkey including the fact that compared to other top countries, Turkey only has few high ranking universities. Acknowledging this, the Turkish government is introducing an array of initiatives to increase the overall quality of higher education in the country. Let’s analyze some of these changes and see how it will influence the Turkish higher education segment.           

The New Higher Education Project  

President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan told that the Turkish government is developing a new and innovative project which will bring together students from new universities to expert academicians who will be working in major cities. This is done to ensure that these students get to experience higher quality of education and the President went on to say that the students from 15 new universities will be able to receive a part of their higher education from pioneering academicians. This is a welcoming sign for students from these 15 new universities as they will be able to learn from some of the best educators in the world. “With the project, we will make possible transparent employment of human resources with a Ph.D. This platform will bring together Turkish or foreign academician candidates and our universities who are seeking academics,” ErdoÄŸan said.      

He also added that the government has initiated this project in order to provide better quality higher education to students based on social justice as well as equal opportunity. This project has been able to offer higher learning options for many students who were not able to leave their cities. Apart from this, the new project has also helped in increasing the number of females who are pursuing their higher education in the country.  Some of these new universities have even got into the top 1000 universities in the world rankings which highlight the positive impact this new project had on Turkish higher education.      

The MYÖS Central Exam

YÖS is an examination which was taken by international students who wanted to study Associate’s and Bachelor’s Degree at Turkish higher educational institutions but the Turkish Higher Education Organization is aiming to change this. They are planning to conduct a test which will be administered centrally by the assessment, selection and placement center (ÖSYM) as of this year. The MYÖS central exam is a new system that was introduced by the Turkish Higher Education Organization for students to enter the private and public universities in the country. According to this new system, no student will be able to enter the institution without the SAT exam for medical, dental, law, engineering, and pharmaceutical disciplines. The new exam will be held in Turkish, English, German, French and Arabic in order to offer a diverse array of options for the international students to choose from. The student’s knowledge about different areas will be tested on this exam and those who are able to get average or above the grade point set by the government will be able to enter the afore-mentioned higher education streams. That said, for streams that are not mentioned in this list, each university can admit international students according to their conditions. With the introduction of MYÖS, educational institutions in the country will be able to better evaluate the academic prowess of their students and select the best.            

AI and Higher Education

AI innovations which are spearheaded by Turkish higher education institutions often gains international attention. Recently, Turkey has introduced a national AI plan which aims to accelerate the growth and innovations happening relating to AI in the country. Through this, Turkey is aiming to be a global innovation powerhouse and a 2019 action plan further highlights the effort the Turkish government has put into AI and its development. This particular action plan prioritized on increasing the use of artistic as well as creative intelligence in teaching, and creating an artificial networked and lifelong structure among many others.  The platform also had three objectives which include making Turkey into a world-renowned AI destination by 2030. Educators in the country are also working on including AI into more advanced disciplines and the institutions in the country have come up with 50 new AI-related programs. This focus given to AI not only has the potential to enhance the quality of education but it can also help Turkey to develop into a leading player in the global AI innovation space.        

With Turkish higher education system preparing for the future, educators and policy makers in the country have high hopes for it growth potential. The afore-mentioned are some of the most important areas the country is currently focusing on to enhance the quality of education and become a more attractive study abroad destination for international students. This will help Turkey to evolve into one of the best study abroad destinations in the world not only in terms of quality but also when it comes to the cost.