Speech Delivered By H.E. Abdullah Gül at the International Higher Education Congress

Distinguished guests,

Distinguished members of the Turkish science society

Distinguished guests from abroad,

Good morning. First of all, I would like to extend my sincere love and affection to all of you. I wish you all a succesful congress. 

I am honored to be with you at the occasion of the International Higher Education Congress organized by the Higher Educational Board.

I believe that the discussions during the meetings on the future of Turkish higher education held today, tomorrow and  the  following  day  will be enlightening and it is a real concern to me that the opinions and recommendations turn into applicable policies.

 Distinguished guests,

As we are putting these concerns into the words on various occasions, Turkey is becoming a prominent international actor. The repercussions of the developments of the Turkish economy, contracting services and tourism are obvious. The power of Turkey upon the security issues is parallel to this equilibrium. But of course, these are not enough. Together with these achievements, to claim that you have a powerful country, it is necessary that the county possess creative technological and scientific abilities.

From this point of view, the exchange of views among the professors from Turkey and other countries in this kind of gathering, putting forward opinions and engaging in discussions on the problems and the future of the universities where science, technology and the opinions thrive, are what I consider valuable. Therefore having the opportunity, I would like to congratulate anybody putting out the effort to organize this meeting. I also wish the Higher Educational Council success.

As you are aware, the main functions of the universities are to conduct independent researches, train the students based on researches, and make their real life implementation possible.

In another words, with the motivating role in the development of the country, the universities produce knowledge, help students specialize and have a profession so they can contribute to the society’s progress. No doubt, not only do they lead the county but the whole of humanity. These are the well-known duties of the universities. But when we ask ourselves what the universally principal duty of the university is, it should not be forgotten that the answer is searching for the truth and advocating justice.

The universities should also adopt a deep moral responsibility along with the autonomy the universities are granted by the society. Their being autonomous would not necessarily mean that they are unaccountable for the well-being of the society. Of course in democracies no single institution can be held irresponsible. Universities are autonomous institutions to enable them to undertake the responsibility of conducting independent research and share the results with their students.  

There is a very important correlation between the sense of responsibility and the autonomy of the universities. In a way, the universities are autonomous in order to enable them to meet the expectations from the society upon the universities. I am of the opinion that the responsibility of the universities to do research on reality and advocate justice in Turkey is really crucial. I think that there is no legal obstacle hindering the universities from implementing these duties. Finding out and revealing the cultural and historical obstacles to implementing this responsibility is the actual duty of the universities. The faculty members can freely do researches and it is necessary that they be fearless in searching for reality. 

It is necessary that the faculty members’ teaching manner be based on advocating justice and reality fearlessly in order to lead the students to transform this manner into a tradition. The most dangerous manner of approach for a university is abstaining from any research subject for fear that the idea that the     specific subject is dangerous or inconvenient. Of course, the universities should be the places where alternative thoughts are expressed in dialogue.   

Distinguished guests;

Of course, the universities are the places of free thought. The primary education may cover the most critical period for the education of the society. But for the given society to bear high level claims, that country should have fine and powerful universities. We clearly witness that the countries which have the good universities are the democratic ones. So, the universities are the indicators of the development of the countries in the field of democracy, economy and in other social spheres. There is a cause and effect relationship.  From this point of view we should exert all efforts as much as we can to make our universities effective. 

I believe that the universities scattered over the many parts of the country will increase the tolerance among the people towards diversity and be the engine of development. Let us be reminded that democracy is much more than casting a  ballot. The human capacity of the  self-sustained, critical thinker, open-minded and promising individuals is the guarantee of our democracy and development.

Distinguished guests;

The universities have witnessed many functional changes and transformations during modern times. The first universities which were the roots of the modern ones rose with the ensuing prominence of the nation states. On the one hand, the universities met the demand of the state’s educated men’s power along with industrialization and on the other hand they served as the cultural centers which formed the common knowledge of a nation and conveyed the knowledge to the next generations. With the evolution of the modern state, the functions and the competence of the universities changed. For instance, with accelerating globalization and national borders’ being removed in some ways, the universities adopted more global roles and functions. 

The Republic of Turkey went through significant changes in many fields. As everybody knows there is a saying that announces “The time determines the truth”. For a certain truth to be realized, the proper time and place must be synchronized.

I am glad to mention that as a country, we have more expectations from universities and make higher demands of them as well. It is high time to have the aforementioned expectations. I also sincerely believe that this kind of atmosphere at the universities will increase the motivation there within.

The new Turkey today needs new and powerful universities. Our democracy is taking root and consolidating day by day. The civil society and the economy which are the guarantors of democracy are strengthening. The universities are the institutions that contribute to the transformation of the intellectual and human resources planning level. All of these changes also require a great transformation of the services provided by the universities.

In fact, what we should refer to is not just ‘the new Turkey’ but ‘the new world’. The Earth we live on, brings about extremely striking developments.  The present is not the industrial revolution that designed the 19th century universities. The World went beyond the industrial revolution at the late quarter of the 20th century. Today we experience the electronic revolution. The revolution that has developed since 1980’s gives us new technical opportunities. The perception of our time and place deeply varies as a result of this revolution. One of the most important breakthroughs of the prior period has been in industrial production. In the past, industrial production had forced people to be in a particular place at a definite time. Now, for example, the necessity and the constraints for workers to go to the same place every day is fading away.

Today, we are discussing and evaluating the terms ‘the time and the place’ again once more.  It is of course impossible to deny the flexibility brought by these conceptual changes in our awareness. This flexibility amounts to freedom.

Today’s world, for the sake of the freedom I mentioned, is adopting the new perceptions of democracy. The social events in countries close to Turkey and in the world are the clear proof. These events, being triggered on the electronic environment, spread there, supported by the youth at universities and the main demand being democracy are the satisfactory signs to determine how the new university concept should be.

The world also needs a new university perception. The education system in the universities can’t be based on rote learning and doctrinal approaches. Turkey, with increasing relations in the whole world, left behind the inward looking policy periods and engaging in the effort to fully integrate to the whole world, the universities in the country should shrug off fixed ideas and rote learning. Instead, critical thinking should be at the forefront. 

The students at the universities should be supported to improve their susceptibility to the differences. They should be given courage to move beyond the common mental patterns and find new answers for the new and the old problems.

The universities can’t pursue the goal of identifying every student as similar as it was before. Everybody should consider that Turkey is not an inward looking country anymore, and she has integrated to the whole world.  At this point, The Republic of   Turkey has a diverse and mature civil society and economy so I think it is necessary that the students graduate with different abilities. 

The universities should also educate students, giving them responsibility in the world affairs and opportunity to leave the university with global leadership abilities. If we expect the youth to be ready for the global leadership roles then the universities should more focus on the global affairs. 

The universities of today, while establishing new departments, should have more concerns than sheer needs of the state.  They have to diversify their programmes and be active in the areas demanded by the society and consider global competitiveness. The newly founded universities should abstain from adopting the other ones’ curriculum and they should consider local needs, they should consider diversification.

Distinguished guests;

Turkey is facing a new future. Today there is almost one university in every one of the cities.  I have always enthusiastically supported the idea that universities be founded in every city. But there are also risks at the same time. These newly founded universities should not be insufficient. For this reason whenever  I come together with the university circles or visit universities, I draw attention to this matter. 

Universities are different institutions from a lyceum or a high school. The environment of a university is distinctive accordingly. So it is a high responsibility to establish that distinctive climate in universities not for just the educational or scientific activities but also so that the proper behaviors of being in a university could be shaped. From this point of view, I would like to once more underline the importance of carefully focusing on the new universities.   Of course, on the other hand, the universities should never make concessions on quality and the scientific qualifications.

Different institutions may be founded in order to serve various goals. However, it is necessary to avoid any move that will undermine the main functions of a university. In fact it also reveals insufficient effort to expect anything from the state.

The flourishing local universities are in fact a necessary project which should be claimed by the local institutions. Municipalities, industry and trade chambers, large industry conglomerates, banks, and other investors should be included in this system. In a way, necessary new legal arrangements should be made to lead the expected enthusiasm of the aforementioned groups of people about the development of the universities in their own cities.  Among the most important targets of these universities, establishing the required infrastructure and opportunities as well as establishing a flexible system to attract Turkish and foreign scholars should be at the top of the list.

Distinguished guests,

Universities should also diversify their financial resources. We are not serving university education in elite colleges for a cream of the society anymore. In a few years time, almost half of the population in our country will have a university degree. According to the information given by the Head of the Higher Education Institution shortly before, the statistics reached these levels.

So the financing of this global education for many students will differ from financing the education for fewer people who would be the educated elite.  The state may provide financing for a limited number of universities but considering the increasing number of the universities serving our millions, the universities must diversify their resources of financing. The relationship between the universities and the related units of the state and the whole society established while the universities try to diversify their resources will strengthen the ties of the universities with the outer world and help the universities provide proper services to them.

The universities must target generating their own resources after a period of time, at least form new resources to contribute what is already available. We should deliberate on patents, resources, know-how, their applicability to technology, and the income from these resources. 

I am sure that you know better than me. There are distinguished scientists among you working at these institutions and universities. Many universities in America and in the West are getting the most out of these implementations. For this reason, we should  take into consideration any legal and administrative needs for flexibility and put them into practice. In any case I know that you will broadly discuss these issues in detail during these meetings for a few days.

Distinguished guests;

Parallel to the changes of the role and the functions of the universities, the functions and the role of the higher educational institution should change. It should not be forgotten that the Higher Educational Council was established after 1980. Today’s Turkey is really different from the Turkey at the time.  The tendencies of the Turkish people are different from how it was then. The provisions of law in those years are considerably different from the democratic standards and the legal rules of today.  From time to time, some arrangements and changes were made but I believe that these are not enough.  I will deal with it later on in my speech.

When the higher educational council was established, there were 27 universities in Turkey. Today there are 160 universities. There is a huge consensus among the society about the necessity to restructure the higher educational council. I would like to draw attention to the importance of the discussions in these meetings to determine how the restructuring should be. For this reason, it is significant to determine how the future universities should be during these meetings, laying out the needs and the current situation in Turkey and deeply evaluating the succesful models in other countries. For this purpose, I especially underlined the importance of finding out applicable solutions.  On the contrary, what I would already like to mention is that  if the fruitful discussions will merely be compiled in a report and put on shelves, the hard work here would only mean a waste of time and energy. The results of these meetings should search for applicable solutions and the results should be properly  evaluated to determine the roadmap to follow  to renew, strengthen and make the universities ready for  the future needs.

The Higher Education Council cannot remain as an institution dedicated to controlling the universities. It should turn in to an institution that is taking precautions to ensure the effective use of the public resources and the coordination among the universities. In addition it should serve as the monitoring body of the performances of the universities. The Higher Education Council no longer being an executive branch dealing with any issues of the universities should instead transform itself in to a regulatory body that determines the strategies. The Higher Education Council cannot be the controller of standardization anymore.

The Higher Education Council should support diversification and differentiation. It should abandon the tendency of abstaining from any new programme request putting forward the question ‘is there any sample case’. The only way for our universities to lead in global competition is by providing them with the academic, administrative and fiscal flexibility to ensure diversification. It is necessary that the universities differentiate and compete with the world in this competition.

It is really impossible to continue the existing system. I am of the opinion that it is even unfair for the Turkish youth to administrate the rooted universities of the big cities like Istanbul and Ankara and the other ones within the same system, under the same rules and administrative approaches.

Furthermore, I would like you to discuss the necessity of the universities to be more responsive to the challenges of today. We should structure the universities in a way that they enable the students to make easy transitions to other disciplines. We should organize the system flexibly. There should not be rules for any student or faculty member to be fixed in a department or place all throughout their schedule. We should remember that the university students are at the age of 18 and recognize his or her abilities during university life. So if the students sincerely and decisively wish to change departments and if you believe that they would succeed, then they would be allowed to change. 

Moreover, apart from the faculties and the departments, the universities could have more opportunities to freely and responsively establish institutes and research centers. I had experienced this during early duties. We had the intention to open up really beneficial research centers but the law of the Higher Education Council put them off and they could not be realized in Turkey. When we said “ let’s materialize the good experiences from abroad here in Turkey”, they said “it is impossible here.” While I was at the Foreign Ministry, when we asked to establish a diplomacy academy, they said this is impossible. So, there is no doubt that this kind of unsustainable status quo should be removed.

      The information I received from the Higher Education Council suggests improvements in access to the education during the last years. The Head of the Education Council gave vast information on this issue to all of us shortly before.

But sometimes, the statistics and the numbers may deceive us. Of course, we would like everyone to have a university education. We are always pleased to observe the high numbers of students at the universities. However, we should not overlook the quality and a qualified education. Otherwise, the numbers would deceive us and we would not be doing any good to the country.

While the opportunity for many more students to attend university was rendered possible, we should also focus on their competitiveness and make the efforts to structure the universities with the abilities to compete with the best ones in the world. Their competitiveness is the core issue. The competitiveness among the state universities is really important. If the competition is possible in a responsive structure, their performance being evaluated and declared openly, then the competition will be set.

Today we are together with the rectors of the universities I have visited before. I would like to put forward the same issue I mentioned many more times: The sole measurement of success should not be the number of publications by the faculty members. Referring to the word ‘success’, only the number of the publications by the faculty members are referred to during my visits to the universities. Of course, we are proud that there has been huge progress regarding the publications and many crucial publications issued in Turkey. However, the reference of success should be based on the new technology produced. Access to the international funds, the patents …So, we should also take these benchmarks to evaluate success and compare it in this way.   

I cannot help dealing with the importance of the foundation universities. These universities are taking an important place in today’s Turkey. At the beginning, you know the best, how under hard conditions the foundation universities were established, so late and straining every nerve.  Today I welcome the rise in the number of foundation universities.  I always recommended to the Higher Education Council that the establishment of these universities be encouraged.  However, I also reiterated that the incentive should be based on no concessions  on the criteria. Not similar with today’s foundation universities but Turkey had the experience of private universities at the time.

The foundation universities today serve devotedly. I know the new administration of the Higher Education Council, giving huge support to them and meeting with their representatives quite often. I am of the opinion that there should not be any discrimination between state and foundation universities. I believe that whichever university generates efficiency in science, serves better at educating and exhibits better performance, then that university deserves to be supported more. At the same time it is important that the criteria be implemented necessarily, reliably and cause no misuse in practice.

We witness the main competition between the state and the foundation universities. The main competition in Turkish education system started with the establishment of the foundation universities. For this reason, I would like to reiterate my appreciation of the foundation universities.

Distinguished guests;

The universities should give particular importance to institutional efficiency and reduce the bureaucratic burden on both the students and the faculty members.

With the increasing schooling rates, two issues come to the forefront. The first is the empty places at some of the higher education programmes and hence cause the waste of the public resources. The employment of the graduates is the second issue. The universities should also be responsive to this problem. These issues should be dealt with decisively. Today, every one of us knows that Turkey is a country open to the whole world and it is not an inward looking country.

It should not be forgotten that all of the rules were amended in Turkish economy. All of the procedures of the market economy are functioning and the economy is fully integrated to the world economy. Turkey is holding the EU negotiations process which prove the democratic and the political standards within the Copenhagen political criteria framework. Through electronic developments, the media turned the world into a “You tube”. Everybody can follow every detail sitting at home. In today’s world the universities being open to the whole world is prerequisite. This is important for both the student and the faculty members. Anytime I come together with the authorities from the Higher Education Council,  I always  raise these issues.

We must remember that when the first university reform was made and the new universities were established in 1933, German oppressed academicians who were Jews were welcomed in our universities to be members of Turkish Academic life. They contributed a lot to the Turkish education system then. Turkey was open to the world in those days, and it is unreasonable for the country today to be closed to the outer world and it was not logical during the 80’s, 90’s and at beginning of this millennium.  For this reason, the foreign academicians should be encouraged to do science in Turkey. It is also necessary to attract foreign students as well. Foreign students studying in Turkey means a huge investment to that country. Moreover, the students and the academicians from other countries being in the Turkish universities will add diversity to their view of the world.

Some young people perceive the world as far as they can observe, but after a university education they understand the extent of the planet. Of course young people must know about the different cultures, religions and races. The students from different cultures must have relationships. This is what enriches a university. There were more international students at universities. At Istanbul University, while I was a student, there were more foreign students than today even if the education at the university was Turkish. I think that the number of foreign students is below the cooperation capacity. Although some precautions were taken to increase the number of foreign students in the last 1-2 years, the situation has worsened in this respect.

In fact, when we travel abroad and meet with a minister of a country who was educated in Turkey, this makes us proud. Let’s consider a country where Turkish investment is rising, looking deep into that country to find out the positive reasons making the process easier, we come across many people who have an educational background in Turkey as scholarship students. It is not just for the civilian but military missions as well. We always witness that the students who have a Turkish educational background  at the Turkish Military Academy, become the strongest bridge between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of their country.   For this reason, I consider these relations very important. I definitely believe that this is an asset for Turkey.

Before I finish my words, I would like to underline the importance of the language, both the Turkish and the foreign language education. Unfortunately we are not successful enough in this respect. Above all, every person must learn his or her mother tongue well. With this perspective, we know that at the leading universities in the world, students have to take up writing composition courses in their own languages to improve their language abilities, regardless of their branch, whether they study medicine or engineering.

 It is impossible for a student to learn foreign language well, if he or she lacksabilities  in his/ her own language. You all deal with exam papers completed by the students. So you know whether the students can use their own languages substantially.  I believe that this issue should be taken up elaborately.

Whatever the branch of the student, having an improved grasp of  the Turkish abilities, the student will be successful at medicine, engineering and all else.

The second issue is foreign language learning. I don’t know if there is another as unsuccessful a country as Turkey in this respect. I openly discuss the issue now. It is the case for both the secondary education and the university education. Some students are considered good at foreign languages and exempted from the foreign language lessons. But when they travel to another country and meet people, they cannot communicate and get astonished. For this reason, Turkey should seriously review its foreign language education policies.

The most important disadvantage for the Turkish young people in general is the lack of second foreign language abilities. Not many of us are good at a second foreign language. This is a failure of ours in today’s World. This situation is not sustainable. We should not forget that the graduates from your universities could have the ability and knowledge to work not just in Turkey but any country in the world. However scientifically qualified, not speaking a foreign language will cause the chance slip by for the person. Of course, the people who will work at the international institutions or the international companies or will establish their own business abroad will be graduates of the universities.

Distinguished scientists of the Turkish world;

Distinguished guests;

You will be discussing every issue on education at this occasion. However, I also had the opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you.  I hope that the meetings today, tomorrow and the following day will contribute to the issues I raised or at least the meetings will ensure you an opportunity to discuss these issues. I hope the congress yields successful results and contributes to the Turkish education system with rewarding opinions.

I extend my sincere love and affection to all of you. Thank you very much.