CoHE President Özvar Attends DOKAP Region Universities Association’s
Consultation Meeting
November 19, 2021 / Giresun
CoHE President Erol Özvar attended the consultation meeting of Universities
Association for Eastern Black Sea Project Region (UNI-DOKAP) hosted by
Giresun University.
He met with the regional rectors at the consultation meeting. The rectors
of Amasya University, Artvin Çoruh University, Bayburt University, Giresun
University, Gümüşhane University, Hitit University, Karadeniz Technical
University, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Ordu University, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
University, Samsun University, Sinop University, Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa
University, Trabzon University and Avrasya University attended the meeting.
The association was established with the signing of the protocol on
November 15, 2016, to make academic and administrative cooperation in
fields such as education, research and development, and social service
between the universities of the DOKAP Region, and to contribute to our
country's future vision and development efforts by taking
university-industry interaction and university-city integration to the next
level. The current situation of the economic development and education in
higher education in the Eastern Black Sea Region was assessed at the
consultation meeting.
In his opening speech, CoHE President Özvar stated that university
associations were formations that united their forces under the framework
of the missions of higher education institutions, and stated that he
believed the Eastern Black Sea Universities Association, which was carrying
out its activities with 15 member universities, would make significant
contributions to Turkish higher education in the coming years.
- An understanding focused on quality, variety, diversity and regional
development
He underlined that the association, which included universities carrying
out duties related to regional development, had the potential to provide
its members with a relative competitiveness through cooperation and
solidarity and added, “As CoHE, we attach importance to an approach on
planning that focuses on quality, variety, diversity and regional
development in all processes of higher education, including education,
training, research and community service.”
- Universities will play an active role in local and global issues
CoHE President Özvar pointed out that universities would play a more
effective role in eliminating local and global issues affecting different
segments of society in the coming period.
“The scientific research and projects carried out by universities against
the latest crises are the most reliable source of information to deal with
these threats. In this respect, our institutions, individually or jointly,
should mobilize their instructors against the aforementioned issues and
create projects.
The projects and incentive mechanisms that the Council will develop will be
based on the big data capacity, quality standards, employment interests,
strong academic performance, international interactions, scientific
productivity, new models of university-industry cooperation and knowledge
diplomacy of Turkish universities. We expect the administrators of Turkish
universities to follow and evaluate their institutions according to these
criteria in areas where they can create a competitive advantage compared to
other institutions.
We believe that the national and global visibility of our institutions that
produce at international standards, make quality publications, offer the
knowledge they produce to the service of the society and provide quality
assurance in education and training will increase.”
- “High-quality universities with higher capacities”
CoHE President Özvar noted that the Higher Education Quality Board would
evaluate universities starting from the following year within the framework
set forth by the Council of Higher Education. He emphasized once again that
they would serve the Turkey of the future and all regions where Turkey is
considered as hope, with high-quality universities with higher capacities
that they had worked to build in line with the vision they had determined.
He said that he believed the Eastern Black Sea University Association and
other associations would lead universities to a network of creative
relations in terms of their goals, and that they would produce economic and
social values with groundbreaking studies, quality teaching and innovative
outputs. He also said that he thought these associations would operate in a
way that would serve the country. He concluded his speech by adding that
the Council of Higher Education would support all kinds of activities they
would do for this purpose.
Click here to read the full transcript of the speech made by CoHE President
Prof. Erol Özvar. (In Turkish)
Afterwards, the consultation meeting was held.