"The Turkish Higher Education System: Between Expectations and Realities" with Akif Demirci

Visiting Scholar Brown Bag Series

Wednesday, April 15, 2015 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Meeting Room D, 3rd Floor

Turkey wants to be among the ten biggest economies of the world by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Many different variables, i.e. continuous economic development, political stability, global economic expansion, and regional/global integration, must be in their best conditions in terms of Turkey’s achievement. Turkish national education, especially higher educational performance, is viewed as the most critical issue in that sense. Although there are some powerful critics against it, it is argued that a fundamental higher educational transformation may have a leverage effect to reach this target. Turkish higher education parameters have rapidly developed as to the quantitative and physical indicators during the past decade. Yet, the qualitative and administrative dimensions still need to be improved. The key question here is, “Can Turkey put the horse before the cart?”

Akif Demirci was the General Secretary of Istanbul Sehir University and is completing his Ph.D. at Marmara University in Turkey. Currently he is a Dissertation Fellow at the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies.