- CoHE President Erol Özvar Meets Ambassadors and Charge d'Affaires of
30 African Countries
- Özvar: "Türkiye's rich culture has enabled students from many parts
of the world to find the traces of their own civilizations and has made
our country a center of attraction with the progress made in Turkish
higher education."
- “Türkiye's embracing and supportive stance towards the region has
received positive response from the continent and our country has
become an important attraction point for students from African
countries.”
September 29, 2022 / Ankara
CoHE President Erol Özvar met with the ambassadors and diplomatic
representatives of African countries for lunch. The representatives of 30
African countries, of which 21 are ambassadors to Ankara and 9 are charge
d'affaires, met at Hacettepe University upon the invitation of CoHE
President Özvar.
The ambassadors of Cameroon, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Mauritania and Niger
and the charge d'affaires of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea,
Gambia, Guinea, Morocco, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended the working
lunch.
The participants discussed the relations between the Council of Higher
Education and African countries, the current status of academic and
scientific cooperation between higher education institutions and new
opportunities that can be established for the further development of
relations in higher education.
CoHE President Özvar stated that they were pleased to welcome the
ambassadors and diplomats of African countries within the scope of
internationalization, which was among the primary goals of the Council of
Higher Education.
Özvar noted that the African continent and Türkiye shared a common history
of nearly 1,200 years and had social, cultural and commercial relations. He
said that Türkiye's efforts in the continent, which had always developed
into good relations with Africa, was appreciated by African countries.
He said that Türkiye, which hosted many civilizations throughout history,
had served as a bridge between Asia and Europe not only geographically but
also culturally, politically and socially.
“Being a unique country where traditional and modern, old and new, East and
West are blended together, the multicultural structure of Türkiye has
enabled different students from many parts of the world to find a trace of
their own civilization and has made our country the center of attraction
with the progress made in Turkish higher education.
The Turkish higher education area, with 208 higher education institutions,
more than 8 million students, more than 185 thousand academic staff, 60,000
programs and 280 thousand international students from 182 countries, is
growing day by day and competes strongly with other countries that dominate
the global arena.”
“The number of students coming from the African continent for higher
education has exceeded 50 thousand”
CoHE President Özvar pointed out that the number of international students
who preferred our country for higher education had increased rapidly in the
last two decades and added, “The number of students coming from the African
continent for higher education has exceeded 50 thousand.”
Özvar noted that Türkiye's embracing and supportive stance towards the
region had received positive response from the continent, and that Türkiye
had become an important attraction point for students from African
countries, adding “We hope to host more prospective students from the
continent to study at our universities.”
Özvar emphasized that, as the Council of Higher Education, they were aware
of the fact that education was the most important tool to carry their
higher education goals forward and to create an international unity and
that they supported the internationalization of Turkish higher education
institutions by signing cooperation protocols with the competent
authorities of various countries.
“In addition to maintaining our relationships with existing partners, we
also focus on building new partnerships. In this context, we signed
Memoranda of Understanding for cooperation in the field of higher education
with 21 countries from the African Continent at the Ministerial level since
the establishment of CoHE. These protocols paved the way for the
realization of academic activities such as student-academic staff exchange
and joint project development between our universities. Under the
Implementation Protocols we signed following these protocols, 292 YÖK
scholarships were provided to five African countries at undergraduate and
graduate level. Currently, there are more than 50 thousand students
studying at Turkish universities from 54 African countries at all education
levels. The number of African academics working at Turkish universities is
227.”
He concluded his speech by saying that he believed that this meeting would
encourage and guide the universities in Türkiye and African countries for
cooperation. After Özvar's speech, the ambassadors and diplomats took the
floor and conveyed their opinions and suggestions.