In his speech at the 2023-2024 Academic Year Opening Ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that universities, which are symbols of freedom, are among the top 10 countries with the highest number of international students in the world with nearly 340 thousand students from 198 countries. Erdoğan also congratulated the scientists and universities to whom he presented YÖK’s 2023 Outstanding Achievement Awards.
ANKARA (IGFA) – President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the 2023-2024 Academic Year Opening Ceremony at Beştepe National Congress and Culture Center.
Noting that the net enrollment rate in higher education, which was 14 percent in 2002, has more than tripled to 45 percent in 2023, President Erdoğan said, “In our country, the ratio of equality between girls and boys in higher education is very close to full equality with 0.98. With over 7 million students, we rank among the top in the European Higher Education Area in terms of the number of enrolled students. With nearly 340 thousand students from 198 countries, we are among the top 10 states with the highest number of international students in the world. The total number of academic staff, which was 70 thousand 22 years ago, has tripled to over 184 thousand today. We have increased the number of professors from 9 thousand 396 to 32 thousand 488, the number of associate professors from 5 thousand 367 to 20 thousand 768, and the number of doctoral faculty members from 11 thousand 190 to 71 thousand 700. It is a source of happiness for us that 46 percent of the total academic staff are women.”
Noting that this year, for the first time, they have allocated 21 thousand additional quotas in state higher education institutions for women over the age of 34 who have not had the opportunity for higher education before, President Erdoğan said, “We have also created 3 thousand 774 quotas in foundation higher education institutions for our martyr and veteran relatives. We will definitely not allow any regression from these achievements. We will never again allow our universities to be associated with bans, pressure, fighting or ideological impositions. I would like to underline once again that we are proud of our universities and academics and that we expect many more achievements from them. God willing, we will continue to stand by all kinds of qualified studies on science, science, culture and education.”