Students' protests bust Turkey's 'excellence in education' bubble
Nov 04, 2021
Ankara [Turkey], November 4 : Turkish students' recent movement against high fees and insufficient capacities of dormitories in higher education institutions has brought out the reality and busted the "Turkey centre of education excellence" bubble, said a London-based business consultant.
Writing in Policy Research Group, James Crickton said Ankara should recognise that students are the building blocks of a nation.
"Therefore, if it wants to have a strong foundation, the problems of students must be solved on priority. Perhaps Turkey's interests would be better served if it focuses on its internal issues rather than trying to spread its tentacles abroad," he writes.
Recent, the student protest movement called "We Can't Shelter" or Barinamyoruz Haraket in Turkish erupted. Students have demanded the government to take measures like limiting rents, building more housing, and offering more subsidies and scholarships for students.
On October 06, 2021, the students took to the streets in blankets to protest the government's continued failure to provide them with homes or dormitories.
The movement that started in Istanbul and Ankara, soon spread all over Turkey and youth from different ages, schools and jobs started movements under different names, like 'Movement of the Unsheltered', 'We Cannot Find Housing', 'Youth Movement Coordination' and 'Those Without a Place to Stay'.
There are about eight million university students in Turkey, a country of 83 million people, with millions of students studying far away from their hometown.
Rent prices have increased excessively throughout the country, especially in big cities, over the past year. According to a study by Bahcesehir University, rents in Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey, increased by over 50 per cent in August compared to the same month in 2020.
Turkey aims to become the educational hub of the world. To achieve this, it started Turkey Scholarships in 2012 which received around 40,000 applications in its first year, increasing to 150,000 applications in 2019.
"Turkey Scholarships claimed to differ from other scholarship programmes in the world by providing students with the excellent social, cultural, and academic extra-curricular programmes and activities while they are in Turkey. However, the recent students' movements have brought out the reality and busted the 'Turkey centre of education excellence' bubble," he writes.
