December 5, 2025

The first term of the “Data Analysis School,” which was launched through the collaboration of four long-established universities in Türkiye and attracted record interest, has been completed. The school’s number of daily active participants reached 30 thousand.

President of the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) Erol Özvar stated that the school, which received more than 135,000 applications from Türkiye and many other countries, has turned into a global educational model, saying, “The fact that daily participation of 30 thousand people has continued for eight weeks without decline has proven the sustainable success of the project.”

-Unmatched on a global scale-

Sharing a striking anecdote regarding the project’s technical infrastructure process, Özvar recounted meetings held with a global company that provides international online education platforms.

Özvar said that company officials stated there is currently no infrastructure in the world on this scale that is so highly attended, online, and interactive, and noted that the infrastructure was made ready through special efforts specifically for this project.

He emphasized that the school, which was launched to close Türkiye’s digital data skills gap, is not merely an academic initiative but a project that reaches young people and all segments of society.

-From senior executives to students, everyone on the same screen-

The program is completely free, and the only requirement for participation is “consistent attendance.”

Drawing attention to the diversity of the participant profile, Özvar noted that senior executives from the banking, trade, industry, and healthcare sectors also follow these courses. This diversity shows that the project addresses not only students but also the digital transformation needs of the professional business world.

-The project’s success went beyond Türkiye-

The success of the Data Analysis School Project has gone beyond Türkiye. Özvar stated that they have received offers from abroad to establish similar models, adding that the project will soon expand to other countries as well.

“These kinds of initiatives will make a tremendous contribution to employment and development.”

Citing the Data Analysis School Project as an example, Özvar called on universities to engage in cooperation. Stating that universities should come together in groups of three or four to produce similar projects that reach the public, Özvar said, “The fundamental institutions that will close the digital skills gap in Türkiye are our universities.”

Emphasizing that universities coming together to produce similar projects that enhance the digital competencies of employees and students will make a tremendous contribution to Türkiye’s development and employment, Özvar said, “Due to digital transformation, we will gain the opportunity to provide many newly trained individuals to sectors where skill and talent gaps have emerged.”

-Education in seven modules, from artificial intelligence to social sciences-

Coordinated by Marmara University and carried out with the contributions of Boğaziçi University, Middle East Technical University, and Istanbul Technical University, the Data Analysis School has an intensive curriculum consisting of 27 weeks, 93 courses, and 284 hours.

At the Data Analysis School, a comprehensive curriculum of seven modules is implemented by internationally renowned scholars in their fields, ranging from artificial intelligence to basic statistics, from panel data analysis to psychometrics, from computational social sciences to digital skills sciences, and to artificial intelligence–supported digital tool applications.