The “2022-2023 Higher Education Academic Year Opening Ceremony” was held at the Presidential Complex by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) with the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The opening ceremony of the academic year was attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vice President Fuat Oktay, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Şentop, Chairman of YÖK Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar and state officials, as well as ministers, YÖK members, heads of relevant institutions, ambassadors and all university rectors and students attended. At the ceremony, our University Rector Prof. Dr. Ali Akdoğan and also faculty deans took part.
President of YÖK Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar stated in his speech at the ceremony, “The establishment of a university in every province of our country has expanded the higher education capacity of Turkey and thus, more students from all over the country have access to higher education. In the last 20 years, significant increases have been achieved in access to higher education in our country with the increase in higher education opportunities, the opening of new universities and the regulations in the quotas. As the Council of Higher Education, increasing the access of our young people who have completed their secondary education and want to study to higher education is undoubtedly among our priority missions.”
Noting that the number of students studying at the university is increasing day by day with the expansion and thus the increase in access in higher education, President of YÖK Özvar underlined that the higher education graduation rate of young people between the ages of 25-34 in Turkey has doubled from 18 percent to 40 percent in the last 10 years, and that under the leadership of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we are very close to OECD averages in accessing higher education.
Expressing that they have developed projects that will increase the competition in the Turkish higher education system and produce better answers to the demands of different stakeholders, YÖK President Özvar said, “In 2023, that is, in the 100th anniversary of the Republic, we will support 100 Excellence Projects. All academic units such as higher education institutions, faculties, institutes, research centers or departments can apply to these projects. Thus, there will be multi-faceted competition at various levels between higher education institutions with different institutional capacities and infrastructures. With these projects, we aim to respond quickly and effectively to different stakeholder expectations and to support the units that carry out studies that will increase Turkey's competitiveness in the international arena.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who made a speech after the Chairman of the Higher Education Council, Erol Özvar, stated that the state has mobilized all its resources to facilitate the access of young people to higher education. Stating that the number of professors at universities, which was 9 thousand in 2002, increased to 31 thousand, and the number of associate professors to 18 thousand, which was 5 thousand, President Erdoğan informed that the total number of academic staff reached 184 thousand from 70 thousand.
President Erdoğan explained that according to the report published by the OECD last week, Turkey's rate of higher education graduates between the ages of 25-34 increased by 348 per cent in the last 20 years, ranking first in terms of rate, “20 years ago, the enrollment rate of young people aged 18-22 in higher education was around 13 per cent, today it has reached 45 percent. As a result of this, we are proud and pleased that the number of our university graduates has reached 13 million 266 thousand by 2022.”
President Erdoğan underlined that today, when technology has become an indispensable part of our lives, our young people who will grow up in these colleges will hopefully be wanted personnel, not intermediate personnel in the field of cyber security. Pointing out that another important innovation is about women, Erdoğan said, “With the new study we are about to complete, we are opening a new door in higher education for our women over the age of 35. Accordingly, we will define additional quotas in associate and undergraduate programs for our women over the age of 35.”
After the opening speeches, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and YÖK President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar presented the “YÖK 2022 Outstanding Achievement Awards” to their owners.