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Higher Education Board (YÖK) President Gökhan Çetinsaya has said universities in Turkey are in urgent need of 45,000 new instructors, out of which 20,000 must hold doctorate degrees to meet the average standard of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Speaking on Monday in an introductory meeting for the Higher Education Archive Project, Çetinsaya said there are at present 21 students per instructor, assistants to professors included. When only those instructors with Ph.D.s are taken into consideration, this number is 48, he said; however, adding that the statistics are biased in favor of private universities. Likewise, there are discrepancies in the distribution of instructors holding doctorate degrees, Çetinsaya asserted. He mentioned that faculties of medicine have one doctor for every 10 students, whereas this number climbs up to 60 in the social sciences faculties.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also delivered a speech to argue that politicians should not be concerned about protests or questions from students. He said universities must avoid politics.
In the meeting, Davutoğlu spoke to academics and stated his concerns. “I am really sad that a government authority has to go to university openings with concerns about protests. No one should feel this anxiety. One group of protesting students should not turn the whole university into a political place. Furthermore, we [government officials] should go to universities and be able to take questions from any student coming from any ideological background. Universities must be places that are entirely independent of politics,” he said.
He said faculty members should not work in universities on the basis of ideological sympathies. “It is not good if a faculty member wants to work in a university because other members are ideologically close to him. It may look comfortable and easy but it is not appropriate for academics. There should be opposing ideas in a university. A faculty member or an academic should be concerned with presenting an idea to his or her opposing coworker. This is how a university should be. Otherwise, we cannot call this an academic space.”
He reminded listeners that he used to be a professor: “I had students and used to give classes in master's programs. My first lesson was to give an article of mine to students and ask them to criticize it. But, at the same time, one must know oneself in order to criticize.” He also said: “I did not like the kind of students who never opposed me. I would say that an academic is someone who reads books even if they oppose the idea; otherwise, it is just useless criticism.”
SHOTLIST
TURKEY, ANKARA, 20 OCT 2014
YÖK President Gökhan Çetinsaya walks to the stage
VAR of Çetinsaya's statements
DURATION: 02:33
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