In this special issue, Yaprak Gürsoy and Özge Onsural-Beşgül bring together Turkish academics and scholars to discuss the recent and ongoing crises in Türkiye and their impact on the higher education secto

Gursoy, Yaprak Gursoy

Onursal-Beşgül, Özge

English

LSE Research Online

Yaprak Gürsoy Özge Onursal-Beşgül April 19th, 2024Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye0 comments | 3 sharesEstimated reading time: 10 minutesIn this special issue, Yaprak Gürsoy and Özge Onsural-Beşgül bring together Turkishacademics and scholars to discuss the recent and ongoing crises in Türkiye andtheir impact on the higher education sector• This post is part of a special issue, Higher education during times of crisis inTürkiyeLast year, we commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the Turkish republic witha series of events organised by the Chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies at theEuropean Institute, LSE. One of our cornerstone events was a two-day workshoporganised in collaboration with the European Institute at Istanbul Bilgi University.During the workshop, we reviewed the accomplishments of the Turkish highereducation sector in the past century, with a particular focus on the main challengesit still faced.In the process, we uncovered a number of diverse crises that confronted Turkishuniversities in the last decades. It was not just the so-called “refugee crisis” that16/05/2024, 14:02 Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye | LSE Higher Educationhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/19/higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye/ 1/8impacted universities; there have been other disruptions too. Some of theseinterruptions re ected global dynamics, such as the pandemic, while some seem tobe in line with regional trends, such as growing political polarisation andEuroscepticism. However, there were also disruptions unique to Türkiye, such as theFebruary 2023 earthquakes.The collection of blogposts in this special issue re ects our discussions aroundthese crises and their impact on the Turkish higher education sector. The postsfocus on the personal experiences of academics during times of crisis, provideevidence from students’ perspectives, and re ect research  ndings.The growth in the number of universities has notbeen accompanied by a corresponding rise inquality, resulting in inequalities betweeninstitutionsWhat makes this focus on higher education in Türkiye particularly interesting is thetransformation the sector went through in a short period of time. The proliferationof the number of universities is one way to document this transformation. Forcomparison, in 2000, there were 53 state universities and 18 foundation universities(see the  gure below). By 2023, the number increased to 129 state universities and75 foundation universities, including four foundation vocational schools.16/05/2024, 14:02 Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye | LSE Higher Educationhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/19/higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye/ 2/8The proliferation of universities in Türkiye in recent decades has undoubtedly easedaccess to higher education. However, according to the 2020 Bologna ProcessImplementation Report, Türkiye still has one of the lowest  gures in the EuropeanHigher Education Area (EHEA) in terms of the number of institutions per million.This is due, in part, to the rise in the number of university students in Türkiye – anincrease of 71.8 % in just  ve years, from 2010 to 2015. Furthermore, the growth inthe number of universities has not been accompanied by a corresponding rise inquality, resulting in inequalities between institutions.Turkish central state authorities initiated reforms to address these and otherchallenges in the early 2000s. Some of these actions took place during the BolognaProcess and could be understood from the perspective of Europeanisation orinternationalisation, as summarised in Kaya’s and Onursal-Beşgül’s post. TheBologna Process reforms had a signi cant impact on universities, academics, andstudents, but these stakeholders were passive recipients, unable to in uence thetrajectory of change, leading to a lack of internalisation. As political and socialtensions grew in Türkiye and as prospects of EU membership stalled, the BolognaProcess lost its momentum, further making it di cult for the reforms to have apositive impact on the ground. In some cases, faculty members and studentsThe number of state and foundation universities in Türkiye has increased signi cantlyover the last few decades. (Source: Higher Education System in Türkiye)The number of international students in Türkiye has been increasingly steadily since2014 (Source: Higher Education System in Türkiye)16/05/2024, 14:02 Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye | LSE Higher Educationhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/19/higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye/ 3/8opposed central government decisions and policies, leading to prolonged protestsand resistance movements on a number of university campuses, most notably atBoğaziçi University.The increasing number of transnational studentsrequired a di erent approach to educationThe loss of steam in the reform process and rising tensions also coincided with thestart of the civil war in Syria in 2011 and the arrival of more than three millionrefugees. As Çayır and Dereli address in their respective posts, the increasingnumber of transnational students required a different approach to education,starting from primary schools and continuing on to universities. The top-downapproach adopted by the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MoNE) was toinitiate projects on inclusive education, along with easier access to universities forforeign nationals. However, Çayır shows that the MoNE projects have so far failed tochange student perspectives on nationalism partly due to an insistence on acentralised approach. Dereli’s study takes a different perspective and focuses onthe experiences of refugees themselves and shows how some refugees feel athome on campus. Based on her  ndings, Dereli calls for more research delving intothe experiences of students to complement studies providing a more macro-levelapproach.A similar process of top-down policies leading to unexpected or insu cient resultson the ground is evident in the posts of Tuğtan and Tunç, who each demonstratehow the Council of Higher Education-mandated online teaching, as a response tothe pandemic and earthquakes, led to mixed results. Re ecting on their personalexperiences at Istanbul Bilgi University, which is a Turkish foundation university, theydemonstrate the challenges administrators face during sudden disruptions. In both,the pandemic and the earthquakes, responses required quick and unusual activitiesbeyond the guidance of national and centralised institutions.16/05/2024, 14:02 Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye | LSE Higher Educationhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/19/higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye/ 4/8In both, the pandemic and the earthquakes,responses required quick and unusual activitiesbeyond the guidance of national and centralisedinstitutions.Tuğtan argues that although remote teaching was successfully initiated during thepandemic, the negative experiences led many academics to resist online andblended education later, negating years of progress in this area. Despite theinvestment in online education before lockdown, the scale of the pandemic and lackof general guidance led to di cult transitions to and from emergency remoteteaching. Similarly, Tunç chronicles the myriad initiatives the university introduced inthe immediate aftermath of the February 2023 earthquakes. As the Vice-presidentof Istanbul Bilgi University, she provides an overview of the range of actions theuniversity administration had to consider, from communicating with students andstaff to organising rescue and aid teams. She discusses the emotional weight ofthese decisions, re ecting on the di culties of being a university administrator at atime of an unprecedented natural disaster.Together, the posts in the special issue highlight how dedicated work by individualfaculty members and administrative teams can mitigate the impact of crises, albeitto an extent. However, these experiences are still valuable as knowledge from theuniversities and campuses can aid in developing a more comprehensiveunderstanding and better policies, leading to better collective outcomes. In light ofthe unpredictable nature of the future and the potential for more crises, continuedinsights from universities and campuses will play a pivotal role in developingadaptive strategies and fostering resilience in the higher education sector._____________________________________________________________________________________________This post is opinion-based and does not re ect the views of the London School ofEconomics and Political Science or any of its constituent departments and16/05/2024, 14:02 Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye | LSE Higher Educationhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/19/higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye/ 5/8divisions.   _____________________________________________________________________________________________Image credits:Main image: Centenary workshop organised by LSE and Istanbul Bilgi University.Courtesy LSE Contemporary Turkish StudiesGraphs (Institutions in Türkiye and International students in Türkiye): HigherEducation System in TürkiyeAbout the authorPosted In: HE in TürkiyeLeave a ReplyYour email address will not be published. Required  elds are marked *Post CommentName Email SiteYaprak Gürsoy is Professor of European Politics and Chair of ContemporaryTurkish Studies at the European Institute, London School of Economics, UKYaprak GürsoyÖzge Onursal-Beşgül is Assistant Professor in the Department of InternationalRelations, and Vice-Director of the European Institute, Istanbul Bilgi University,TürkiyeÖzge Onursal-Beşgül16/05/2024, 14:02 Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye | LSE Higher Educationhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/19/higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye/ 6/8

Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/123470/1/highereducation_2024-4-19--higher-education-during-times-of-crisis-in-turkiye.pdf

Higher education during times of crisis in Türkiye

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online