Higher Education Systems - Turkey

The higher education system in Turkey is supervised by the Council of Higher Education (CoHE: https://www.yok.gov.tr). The CoHE is an autonomous institution which is responsible for the planning, coordination and governance of the higher education system in Turkey in accordance with the Turkish Constitution and the Higher Education Law. The Council's Evaluation Committee annually investigates the teaching and research activities of each University and reports to the Council.

Higher education institutions in Turkey can be categorised as public Universities, private non-profit foundation Universities and Institutes of Technology. Private universities differ from the others only for the financial and administrative issues.

The overall organization of the higher education is similar to Bologna Style and higher education institutions use both the national credit system and European Credit Transfer System. The offered programs at higher education institutions are:

• Associate's degree programs
• Bachelor’s degree programs
• Graduate programs (Master's and Doctoral).

Associate programs are two year vocational programs. Vocational high school graduates can qualify for the Associate’s degree programs without taking any centralized exam. The data regarding Associate programs has not been included in the data shown under the menu "Statistics".

For Bachelor’s degree programs, high school graduates must take the central national University entrance examinations and identify their choices for the University-Department. Placement to university departments are made by the National Evaluation, Selection and Placement Center (www.osym.gov.tr). Typcal length of Bachelor’s degree programs is four years and the typical mode of examination in Bachelor's courses is continuous including quizzes, homeworks, projects, midterm examinations and finals. Those who fail a course have one chance of taking a re-take examination after the semester ends. The proportion of elective courses usually differs according to the department. A rough proportion of required courses at Bachelor's level is around 75% and elective courses are placed in the third and fourth years of the curriculum. A Bachelor's program does not include a thesis. Although a practical internship in a company is not mandatory, most of the programs include practical internships as a required course, generally to be completed during the summer months. The duration of the internships ranges from 30 working days to 3 months.

There are two types of Master's programs: with thesis (with a duration of at least two and at most three semesters) and without thesis (with a duration of at least four and at most six semesters). It is not very common to complete practical internship at companies during Master's studies. The major requirement in order to apply to a Master's program is to have graduated from a Bachelor's program and to have received at least 55/100 from the national central examination called ALES (Academic Personnel and Graduate Study Admission Examination). In addition to the ALES score, the undergraduate GPA can also evaluate the results of the scientific evaluation and / or interview in writing. Additionally, each University and research institute has its own regulations regarding the admission process. The requirements may include the submission of results from an international examination such as TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, recommendation letters from instructors or others qualified to evaluate academic ability, as well as interviews. Typical mode of examination in Master's courses is continuous including quizzes, homeworks, projects, midterm examinations and finals. Students who fail a Master's course can try again provided that all courses are completed successfully in the given time period.

Conditions for admission to a PhD degree program are the same as those for the Master's degree programs. Although some PhD programs allow admission directly after obtaining a Bachelor's degree, most programs require a Master's with thesis degree. The duration of the Doctorate program is minimum eight and maximum twelve semesters. For those admitted with a Bachelor's degree, it is at least ten and at most fourteen semesters.

For the PhD degree, successful completion of the following are the basic requirements:

• At least 7 courses (minimum 21 credits),
• Qualifying examination,
• Dissertation and Dissertation defense.

The jury for the dissertation defense is comprised of five professors, where at least one must be from a different University than the candidate. The defense is public.