“Opening Ceremony of the Higher Education Academic Year 2020-2021” Held at the Presidential Complex

Emphasizing the importance of continuing academic education uninterruptedly, even though it is carried out under very difficult conditions due to the pandemic, President Erdoğan stated that distance education is valuable but will not replace formal education. He also said, “we hope to start face to face education in higher education as soon as possible as in other education levels”.

President Erdogan said, “We completed the establishment of universities in all of Turkey’s 81 provinces”. Stating that 207 public and foundation universities operating in the country today give education to 8,267,000 students with 176,000 academic staff, Erdogan said that the increase in the quotas of the universities prevented the accumulation in the entrance exams.

The chairman of CoHE said, “With the goal-oriented internationalization project, the number of international students in Turkey, which was 48,000 in 2014, reached 180 thousand in 5 years. This rate of increase has not been caught in any European country in recent years. There is fine craftsmanship behind it.

In this difficult period when there are sharp decreases in the number of international students even in countries with powerful higher education, the fact that the number of international students in Turkey has exceeded 200,000 this year is an expression of confidence in Turkey. We are very happy about this”.

Source: CoHE