Ministry of National Education

The number of Ph.D. graduates in the country rose by 20 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, reaching the highest level in six years, Türkiye's top education body has revealed.

According to the Higher Education Council's (YÖK) annual report on university monitoring and assessment, the number of doctoral graduates in Türkiye increased from 11,290 in 2022 to 13,561 in 2023.

Controversy is mounting over Türkiye's university entrance exam system amid allegations that students with negative scores are being admitted to universities, a claim the higher education authority strongly denies.

A total of 192 researchers from 65 international institutions, including prominent names like Harvard University, Oxford University, Texas A&M University and Michigan State University, have applied to collaborate with Turkish universities, highlighting strong global interest in Türkiye's academic and research opportunities.

Representatives of 150 universities from 67 countries attended the ninth Eurasia International Higher Education Summit (EURIE) in Istanbul on Feb. 27.

"The future of higher education will be shaped by our ability to embrace the dual nature of cooperation and competition," said Erol Özvar, the head of the Higher Education Council (YÖK), at the opening of the summit.

Ankara and Baku have signed an agreement to establish the Türkiye-Azerbaijan University which will bring Turkish higher education experience to the Azerbaijani capital.

The rate of female students in universities has risen to 51.7 percent, while the percentage of female academics in Türkiye has ticked up to 46.4 percent in 2024, surpassing the OECD countries' average of 43 percent, according to a report by the Higher Education Council (YÖK).

The average time it takes for fresh graduates to get a job is around six months, with the satisfaction rate of employers with new graduates revealed as 78 percent, according to data from the Higher Education Council (YÖK).

YÖK prepared the "University Monitoring and Evaluation General Report-2023," which analyzes 208 universities in Türkiye in line with 74 different indicators.

The Council of Higher Education (YÖK) has recently sparked heated debates by allocating more than 20,000 quotas in associate and undergraduate programs specifically for women over the age of 34 who have not previously received an undergraduate education.

The proportion of women professors employed at Turkish universities has outpaced the average in EU countries, the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) announced on June 5.

Turkey has 207 higher education institutions, with nearly 8.22 million students and almost 91,000 academics in total.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) has given solutions rejected countless times by the Government, and the simple motion against the Minister of Education, a democratic procedure, is also an opportunity for dialogue, Social Democrat MP Camelia Gavrila said on Monday.