Turkish Higher Education Gets Full Marks for Many Indicators from
European Commission
January 18, 2025
Erol Özvar, President of the Council of Higher Education, stated that the
Turkish higher education system received full points from 9 out of 18 basic
indicators in the 2024 Bologna Process Implementation Report. He announced
that Türkiye, which received a passing grade in all indicators, scored 4
out of 5 points in 6 basic indicators and 3 points in 3 indicators.
There are 18 basic indicators related to higher education in the report and
these indicators were evaluated on a 5-point scale. Of these indicators, 9
were related to basic commitments regarding education levels, recognition
and quality assurance, 8 were related to the social dimension of higher
education and 1 was related to internationalization.
Türkiye received 5 points from the following Bologna indicators:
“Monitoring the implementation of the ECTS system by external quality
assurance”, “System-level automatic recognition of degrees for academic
purposes”, “Stage of development of the external Quality Assurance
systems”, “Supporting vulnerable, disadvantaged or underrepresented groups
of students and staff in participating in international mobility”, “Stage
of implementation of the Diploma Supplement”, "Implementation of national
qualifications frameworks", "Student participation in external Quality
Assurance", "Level of international participation in external quality
assurance" and "Monitoring and data collection".
“Facilitating synergies for an inclusive lifelong learning”, "Effective
guidance and counselling services", "Sustainable funding for equity,
inclusion and diversity in higher education", "Inclusive learning
environment and institutional culture", "Implementation of agreed Bologna
degree structures" and "Policy dialogue on implementation of principles and
guidelines" were rated with 4 points.
The indicators rated with 3 points were “Level of openness to cross border
Quality Assurance of EQAR-registered agencies”, “Enabling flexible modes of
lifelong learning in higher education”, and “Portability of public grants
and publicly-subsidized loans”.
Özvar stated that the European Commission published the Türkiye Report in
Turkish for the first time on its official website. The report can be
accessed at
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/b3eb2763-cf0a-11ef-be2a-01aa75ed71a1/language-tr
.
In his assessment of the Bologna Process Implementation Report, Özvar
stated that the data clearly demonstrates the great capacity of Turkish
higher education. He emphasized that the Turkish higher education system
has gained great momentum in recent years and has managed to stand out in
many fields. He noted that they are conducting a comprehensive evaluation
process regarding all indicators in the report.
The report emphasized that Türkiye is one of the European countries with
high-level coordination structures or mechanisms to address issues such as
equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education. Türkiye also
demonstrated a strong commitment to provide sustainable financial support
to ensure equity, inclusion and diversity, and is one of the leading
countries in strengthening the social dimension in higher education.
According to the “European Higher Education Area Key Data” section of the
report, Türkiye has the highest number of higher education students among
EHEA countries. In terms of the number of academic staff, Türkiye recorded
an increase of 15.1 percent and has one of the youngest communities among
member countries in terms of the average age of academic staff. The
proportion of female academic staff in Türkiye also approached the average
of the EHEA countries.