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Following the founding of the Turkish Republic in October 1923, a key focus of the modernization agenda was the existing university system, originally modelled on the grandes écoles of France, merged into Darülfünun-u Şahane in 1900. At first, a gradual revision was considered, based on the proposals of the Swiss scholar Prof. Albert Malche. In 1933, however, a more radical approach was adopted; the Darülfünun was closed, numerous scholars were dismissed, and Istanbul University was established in its place. From the very beginning, the seeds of an enduring conflict between universities and Turkish governments were sown. Since then, the history of universities in modern Türkiye has been marked by political upheavals and coups, resulting in significant interventions and widespread dismissals, notably in 1947, 1960, 1971, 1983, and most recently in 2016.

1971: Under the watchful eye of the state

University autonomy and academic freedoms were first guaranteed by the Constitution in 1961. According to Art. 120, universities were public legal entities with scientific and administrative autonomy. They were governed and supervised by their governing bodies, which were composed of and elected by members of the faculty. Governing bodies of the University, faculty members, and research associates could not be dismissed by authorities outside the university. University faculty members and research associates were granted the right to conduct research freely and to publish the results. However, this impeccably drafted provision lasted only ten years. After an amendment in 1971, the same article stated that universities would continue to be governed by elected bodies, but under the supervision and control of the state. University bodies, faculty members, and research associates could now be removed from their posts by authorities outside the university if the «freedom of learning and teaching in universities is endangered». In such circumstances, the Council of Ministers was even given the constitutional right to seize the administration of the university.

1982: Academic freedom for patriots only

With the 1980 coup d’état and the promulgation of the new Constitution of 1982, the limits of university autonomy and academic freedoms were even further tightened. To this day, Art. 130 IV states that university members are free to engage in all forms of research and publication. However, this freedom is limited by the very opaque statement that such research cannot include activities against the existence and independence of the state and the integrity and indivisibility of nation and country. Universities remain under the supervision and control of the state (Art. 130 V). This control was facilitated by the establishment of the Council of Higher Education (CoHE, Art. 131 of the 1982 Constitution), which checks and approves university budgets, determines the number of academics per faculty and public university, decides on the number of enrolments for each university, unifies curricula, appoints deans, dismisses faculty members, and more. Today, the CoHE consists of 21 members, 14 of whom are directly appointed by the President of the Republic and seven others are nominated by the Interuniversity Council but are again appointed by the President.

2018: At the discretion of the President

The right to appoint rectors was already granted to the President by the 1982 Constitution (Art. 130 VI). However, until 2016, universities had at least the right to hold elections and to nominate candidates to the CoHE according to the election results. The CoHE would propose three of these candidates to the President, who would make the final decision. Even this bit of autonomy was removed in 2016 by a state of emergency decree that gave the President the right to appoint rectors, a provision that was also included in the Law on Higher Education in 2018.¹ As of 2018, the President, instead of the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the CoHE and the Ministry of National Education, was authorised to establish faculties, institutes, and colleges affiliated to universities and to merge, close, affiliate and rename them.² As Türkiye transitioned from a parliamentary democracy to a presidential system of government in 2018, many decisions that were once taken in a collaborative process are now exclusively at the discretion of the President.

2023: In bad company

The balance sheet of 100 years of higher education in the Turkish Republic is sobering. According to the Academic Freedom Index,³ in 2023 Türkiye remains to be in the lowest category, together with countries such as China, North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Rwanda, and Syria. In 1923, Türkiye received an average score of 0.07 out of 1. In 2022, this average was only 0.01 higher. After the 1980 military coup, the average was at 0.05. Given that Türkiye had managed to rise to 0.56 out of 1 in 2004 – the highest score in 100 years – this decline in just 19 years is even more dramatic.⁴ Unsurprisingly, it goes hand in hand with Türkiye’s falling scores in the Liberal Democracy Index.⁵ Whereas in 2012 it was still classified as an electoral democracy with a score of 0.36 out of 1, in 2022 Türkiye is listed among the electoral autocracies with a score of 0.15.

The management of all universities in a chain of command, on the one hand, and the opening of a university in every province without providing any infrastructure and without training adequate faculty,⁶ on the other, seem to have disastrous consequences: Only three Turkish universities are ranked among the world’s top 500, and another eight are among the top 1000;⁷ the number of publications in predatory journals has increased significantly;⁸ the number of unemployed university graduates is 2.5 times higher than in the EU;⁹ the brain drain at the level of experienced academics as well as among the most successful recent university graduates is rampant¹⁰– in short, Türkiye’s contribution to world science melts away.