CoHE Makes New Arrangements to Increase Quality, Merit and Equal
Opportunity in Academia
May 18, 2021
Some arrangements were made on the basis of quality and merit with the
changes published in the Official Gazette today.
1) The minimum score requirement for foreign language was increased
Upon the findings of the Council of Higher Education and the requests of
students, the minimum score required to be appointed to
teaching fellow positions in programs taught in a foreign language and to
the positions of teaching fellows teaching foreign language classes was increased to 85. To this end, the competency required from
academics teaching foreign languages was increased.
2) The principle of “merit” was brought to forefront for the
appointments to be made to research assistant positions in priority
fields at research universities
Two amendments were made in the
“Regulation for the Principles and Procedures regarding the Central
Exam and Entrance Exams to be Conducted for the Appointment of Teaching
Staff for Permanent Posts”.
- One of the amendments is that the objective criteria (ALES scores and
exam scores from foreign language centers) became more effective in the
selection of research assistants in priority fields of research
universities to be determined by the Council of Higher Education.
- The other amendment is that the number of candidates to be called for the
exam following pre-assessment will be maximum three times the number of
positions for these universities while it is usually maximum ten times the
number of positions.
At the introductory meeting of the “YÖK Academic Career Merit Project”,
which was realized by the New CoHE, we stated that we were worried about
the challenges taking place during the employment of academic staff and
that we would make some arrangements to prevent them.
Afterwards, we put a stop to the inclusion of some parts or the complete
titles of the graduate theses or dissertations in the promotion and
appointment to professor, associate professor, assistant professor
positions with a new provision we added to the Regulation on the Promotion
and Appointment to Faculty Member Positions.
These amendments are the continuation of our efforts to increase merit and equal opportunity. We will continue to make new
arrangements in this direction.