Turkish Public Higher Education and Its Problems Under the Neoliberal Depredation

YILMAZ E.

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, vol.21, no.1, pp.345-372, 2023 (ESCI) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 21 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2023
  • Journal Name: Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)
  • Page Numbers: pp.345-372
  • Keywords: higher education, political economy, Turkey, welfare state
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The present paper aims to highlight the structural problems of the Turkish higher education system by focusing on the problems associated with cost and quality of and access to higher education. These problems manifest themselves in the form of massification, the explosion in the number of public universities without resources and even students, increasing cost of education as inequality and privatization of education are on the rise. Those problems have been exacerbated with the implementation of neoliberal policies that accelerated the decline of the welfare state in Turkey. Populist policies such as opening state universities in every province have not helped with the outcome of such policies: declining quality and increasing cost of higher education, yet let faith-based organizations seize the opportunity of collapsed welfare.