CoHE Signs Protocol on Support Program for Research Universities
March 17, 2022 / Ankara
The Strategy and Budget Office of the Presidency of the Republic of
Turkey and the Council of Higher Education signed the “Protocol on
Cooperation for Support Program for Research Universities”.
Within the scope of the protocol signed by İbrahim Şenel, President of the
Strategy and Budget Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, and
Erol Özvar, President of the Council of Higher Education,
the resources will be transferred to research universities according to
their performance
.
It is planned that the support, which will be given for the first time this
year by the Strategy and Budget Office of the Presidency of the Republic of
Turkey, will continue to increase every year for five years. CoHE will
determine the areas where the resources will be used, carry out the
project, and evaluate the use of the resources.
The Support Program for Research Universities will support the studies of
23 research universities in health, social sciences and advanced
technology.
The program aims to increase the competitiveness of research universities
in the international arena and to enable research universities to create
products with high added value in the fields included in the Eleventh
Development Plan by increasing R&D activities, moving up the ranks of
universities in international rankings, increasing the number of
publications and increasing their brand values.
CoHE President Erol Özvar
made the following statement:
“In addition to the priority fields of 23 Turkish Research Universities
listed in the Eleventh Development Plan within the scope of the
program, these universities were also matched with the fields of
health, advanced technology and social sciences in which they are
competent. We will share the results of these pairings with the public
at the meeting we will hold at Erciyes University next week.
Within the framework of this support program, the Strategy and Budget
Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey will allocate the
resources to research universities according to the results of the
performance evaluation made annually by the Council of Higher
Education, effective from this year.
Research universities will be able to use this resource allocated to
them to support scientific research projects in the fields they are
matched up by CoHE. Under the Support Program, the resources will be
transferred to the BAP budgets of the universities by the Strategy and
Budget Office and they will be used within the scope of the BAP
Regulation of the universities. The universities will start using the
resources after they are transferred to the university budgets this
year.
I hope the protocol will be beneficial. I would like to express my
gratitude to our President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who always attaches
great importance to higher education and research and has always
supported us, and to İbrahim Şenel, President of the Strategy and
Budget Office, and his valuable team for their support and
contributions in the preparation process of the Support Program for
Research Universities.”
İbrahim Şenel,
President of the Strategy and Budget Office of the Presidency of the
Republic of Turkey,
made the following statement:
“Turkish universities are among the most important actors in achieving
this goal with their functions of producing knowledge and conducting
research. It is critical to strengthen the role of universities in the
R&D and innovation ecosystem and to increase the number and quality
of researchers at universities.
In this context, our government have gradually expanded our
universities across the country in the last 20 years. On the other
hand, various policies have been implemented to ensure the
quality-oriented development of these universities. One of these
policies is to increase the research capacity and competencies of the
universities.
Through the protocol we will sign today, a new and significant step
will be taken by launching the Support Program for Research
Universities, which aims to further develop the competencies of Turkish
research universities and to increase their international success.
Under the joint program which we will carry out with the Council of
Higher Education, the resources will be allocated to Turkish research
universities for scientific research projects by taking into account
their annual performance.”
The research universities are divided into 3 groups (A1, A2 and A3)
according to their performance
A1 universities
with top research performance are Middle East Technical University,
Istanbul Technical University, and Boğaziçi University. A2 universities with high-level research performance are
İzmir Institute of Technology, Yıldız Technical University, Ankara
University, Istanbul University, Erciyes University, Hacettepe University,
Gebze Technical University, Ege University, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa. A3 universities with moderate research performance are
Marmara University, Bursa Uludağ University, Dokuz Eylül University,
Atatürk University, Gazi University, Çukurova University, Fırat University,
Karadeniz Technical University. The foundation research universities are İhsan Doğramacı
Bilkent University, Sabancı University and Koç University.
Ongoing Support Projects Provided for Research Universities
Research universities have been supported since the day they were announced
as “research universities”.
In addition to staff support to Research Universities, the top universities
with high performance are provided with Additional Budget Support, Support
for Doctoral Education Abroad by the Strategy and Budget Office, and
Support for Center of Excellence by TUBITAK.
Research University:
There are 23 Research Universities, including 20 state universities and 3
foundation universities, determined by the Council of Higher Education
under the Research-Oriented Mission Differentiation and Specialization
Program.
Research universities around the world play critical roles in training
professionals, senior experts, scientists and researchers that the economy
needs, and in producing new knowledge to support national innovation
systems.
At the heart of the global knowledge economy, research universities serve
as flagships for post-secondary education worldwide. Research universities
are generally universities that attract the best and brightest students of
their countries, employ competent academics, and produce the majority of
research outputs. There are 150 research universities in the USA and around
100 research universities in China.