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CoHE President Erol Özvar Appears as Guest on Hakan Çelik's TV Program on CNN Türk

June 11, 2022

CoHE President Erol Özvar participated in the TV program named "Hafta Sonu" presented by Hakan Çelik on CNN Türk and answered questions about YKS, higher education and universities on a live broadcast.

Özvar stated that around 3 million 250 thousand students would take the Higher Education Institutions Exam (YKS), which would be held on 18-19 June and said, "I congratulate them in advance. I hope they will pass this exam in the best way."

“The Psychological Barrier Disappeared Along with the Minimum Passing Score”

When asked about the responses concerning the removal of the minimum passing score requirement and extension of the exam period for YKS, Özvar stated that the responses were quite positive and said:

“The impressions we get from our students and their families show that the removal of the minimum passing score requirement has removed the psychological barrier to a larger extent as well. Students also perceive the minimum passing score as a psychological barrier. Why was the minimum passing score requirement removed? There is, in fact, a very simple logic for its removal. We want to further increase and expand the variety of choices. The quality starts at the gates of universities. We can talk about the quality education of students who join higher education only after entering the university. The removal of the minimum passing score requirement for TYT and AYT will primarily help to disperse the unfavorable psychology. Second of all, we will enable a large number of students to compete within themselves. Therefore, the competition will increase. Thirdly, the same success criteria apply this year as in the previous years. What we are actually trying to do is to increase the dynamic of the exam. In other words, we tried to arrange the exam according to the success rating. However, there is no change in the content of the exam. There is no change in the number of questions, or the quality of the questions."

“We observe that extending the duration of the exam increases the motivation of students”

He said that they, as CoHE, they had made yet another significant change and extended the exam period in YKS by 30 minutes and commented, “This is actually a right granted to everyone to provide them with more time to spend on thinking, and decrease the possibility of making mistakes while thinking faster. It is a right granted not only to highly successful students but also to less successful students. In this respect, we observe that this extra 30 minutes psychologically increases the motivation of students. Our concern is to make students more competitive. In this sense, I must say that it was received quite positively by the students. In other words, we should not push students into making mistakes just because we want to put them through a test. We want to evaluate our students with their skills, abilities and ability to use exam time in their natural flow."

He noted that there should not be a perception that the questions would become more difficult with the prolongation of the exam duration and said, "I am addressing our precious families and my dear future colleagues. The questions and difficulties of the exams are not in the hands of CoHE or ÖSYM. A team of experts in this field, who has been preparing questions for years, determines the degree of difficulty of these questions. They prepare exam questions. Therefore, neither we, as CoHE, have the authority to intervene in questions, nor the ÖSYM administration has authority to do so. It is quite clear. I'm really looking forward to it, too."

“The fact that there is a quality concern among our stakeholders motivates our work more”

When reminded that the number of universities had increased and was asked whether the quality was at the desired level, Özvar said, "The fact that there is a quality concern among our stakeholders actually motivates our work more.”

“The fact that we are constantly reminded of the quality of our works causes us to pay more attention to these issues in our work. First of all, I have to say that we anticipate that there will be a much higher demand for higher education in the coming years. This does not only apply to Türkiye. The demand to study at universities is a general trend you see all over the world. The reason is demographics. The vision, efforts and investments of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for higher education in the last 15 years have helped the female population in Türkiye, especially in the last 10-15 years, to access higher education. If this investment had not been made in the early 2000s, we could have faced a serious crisis today. In that respect, I can say that higher education investments and efforts to access higher education in Türkiye go in parallel with the whole world," he said.

“Our aim is not to strategize to enter the rankings”

He stated that Türkiye was at the forefront of the competition among young people in terms of entering universities, adding that the quality would increase where there was competition. “I can name ten universities in Türkiye that offer undergraduate education which you can get anywhere in the world. We have declared 23 universities as research universities. Our goal is not to strategize to enter the rankings. I expect universities and academic staff in Türkiye to produce publications in a more international level and better in quality, and produce more research and development projects. We should host more international students and perform in those areas. It does not matter if they put us in the rankings or not," he said.

“We aim to increase the number of international students even more”

CoHE President Özvar stated that Türkiye was among the countries most preferred by international students in higher education and was the fifth in Europe in the ranking, and continued as follows:

“It is extremely important for Türkiye to be in the top five. Where do students come from? There are students from more than 150 countries who come to Türkiye to study. From Papua New Guinea to Singapore, Australia, South Africa... Why do they prefer Türkiye? Recently, we all observe that the popularity of Türkiye has increased all over the world. Secondly, Türkiye has started to produce programs that will meet the expectations of international students. In addition to Turkish, we offer undergraduate programs in English, French and even German. Therefore, we have many students from Africa, the Turkic world, and the Far East including Japan. Mr. President has set a bar for us to increase it to 500 thousand. We're going over that with planning."

"Before going abroad, check the quality, equivalence and accreditation of the university you plan to study"

Özvar noted that the equivalence was based on reciprocity and said, “I say to all my fellow students to check the universities whose equivalence are accepted by official institutions before going abroad. If there is no equivalence, do not go there. I advise them to check the quality, equivalence and accreditation of the university they will study at before going abroad."

He emphasized that CoHE had taken extremely important steps in the field of equivalence in recent years, especially in the systemization of the process, and said, “CoHE has come a long way in equivalence applications. If there are people who are having problems regarding this topic and are delayed in the application process, they should definitely contact us."

“We have started to work on a project which will allow research assistants working under 50/d contract to remain at universities for a while to produce the necessary publications required by the universities they wish to apply.”

When asked about the status of the research assistants working under 50/d contract, Özvar reiterated his promise to meet with academics to talk about that issue in Ramadan and said, “I gave my word”.

“When I visit Bursa in the coming days, I will meet and have a chat with them."

“They need to know this. If you want to remain at university, you have to bring together the performance, studies and publications that will meet the appointment and promotion criteria of that university. In other words, even if they are in a 33/a or 50/d position, here is the main issue: If an academic wants to be a scientist and want to be appointed to the permanent assistant or associate professor position, the first thing he has to do is to meet the criteria that each university expects from assistant professors, associate professors and professors. Then they will bring up this question: ”How will we make a living after completing our doctoral studies? We could become unemployed. How are we going to carry out these works?” I can certainly say that it is a reasonable objection. We started to work on a project which will allow research assistants working under 50/d contract to remain at universities for a while to produce the necessary publications required by the universities they wish to apply.”

“We want to affiliate researchers who are engaged in R&D activities outside universities to universities”

Özvar stated that they foresaw some changes regarding the positions and permanent posts of academic staff in the Higher Education Law No. 2547 in the upcoming period and that they continued to work on the issue.

“We foresee some changes regarding the teaching staff positions in the Law No. 2547. If our Assembly deems it appropriate, we are in full consultation with our ministries, with the permission of our President. In the near future, we will contribute to the profile of lecturers. As you know, there are positions of assistant professors, associate professors and professors. There are around 20 thousand researchers in Türkiye who have completed their doctoral studies and who hold patents with a focus on R&D. In addition to these teaching staff, we want to affiliate researchers who carry out R&D activities outside universities to universities. We are not actually reinventing the wheel. We want to make researchers part of the universities."

“The Debate on Abolishing CoHE is Political”

Özvar stated that the debate on the abolition of CoHE was a matter of political controversy and that he would not be a part of it. “You can either read it as “YÖK” or read it backwards as “KÖY”. As in the whole world, we definitely need an interface in Türkiye, which is in full harmony with higher education institutions, ensures their coordination, supervises higher education institutions that use public resources, and shares their vision for the future of the State. Ministries are doing this job in Europe,” he said.

“The Power of Amnesty belongs to our Assembly”

In answer to the question about student amnesty, Özvar said, "The authority to issue amnesty and enact the amnesty belongs to our Assembly."

He stated that CoHE could share the information, documents and data requested from them if the relevant political parties in the Parliament work on the issue. Özvar said, “I think that the will of our President is extremely important here. They ask who will be included in this amnesty. The scope of the amnesty will largely be determined by the works to be carried out in the Parliament.

Apart from the usual amnesty, we need to meddle with other things. What do we aim for with this amnesty? If we keep coming up with amnesty every time, another amnesty may come. Anyone who will benefit from the amnesty this time has the right to try a second time."

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