The man who awakened Eskişehir

The Republic of Türkiye has been waging its 250-year struggle for modernization through education.

We can consider the Imperial School of Naval Engineering (Mühendishane-i Bahri Hümayün), opened in 1773 during the reign of Sultan Ahmed III, as the starting point of today's Istanbul Technical University.

Following the institutes established in the early years of the Republic, we can count the State Academies of Engineering and Commercial Sciences, and the universities founded after 1950.

1955 Karadeniz Technical University 

1955 Ege University

1957 Atatürk University 

1959 Middle East Technical University were established.

The Eskişehir Academy of Commercial Sciences and the Eskişehir State Academy of Engineering and Architecture, founded in 1958, were only transformed into Anadolu University in 1982.

I understand METU being established in Ankara, but why was Anadolu University founded 27 years after the one in Trabzon and 24 years after the one in Erzurum?

Yet, Eskişehir was the greatest supporter of Adnan Menderes and the Democrat Party.

The Minister of Finance of the period, Hasan Polatkan, was from Eskişehir.

The Minister of Education and Rector of Marmara University, Orhan Oğuz, was also from Eskişehir. 

I honestly do not quite understand why there was such a delay.

In the meantime, if we do not note this, God will strike us down.

Anadolu University, founded years after the others, closed the gap very quickly in terms of the added value it created and managed to surpass them all.

Due to the limited number of universities, it addressed the plight of citizens who did not have the opportunity to access higher education by establishing the Faculty of Open Education.

We cannot thank Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Büyükerşen enough for his skill in getting the “Open Education Project” approved by the Ankara of the 1980s and the constipated Higher Education Council (YÖK).

We as a nation can never repay our debt to Büyükerşen, who brought university education to the doorsteps of our expatriates in Europe thanks to Open Education.

Not only Open Education, but he also established the Faculty of Communication, the Animation Department, the Cartoon Department, the Vocational School for Hearing and Speech Impaired Youth, the Faculty of Civil Aviation, and an airport exclusive to the university, at a time when many other universities were not even aware of such things.

Büyükerşen grasped these departments, which are seen as very important today, back in the 1980s.

It is not my place to say, but even if he had done nothing else, he would have deserved heaven just for educating children with disabilities and bringing them into working life as if they were not disabled.

Thanks to this school being in Eskişehir, citizens with disabled children became guests of the people of Eskişehir.

Every time I board a plane, my thought of whether the pilot is an Anadolu University graduate is also thanks to Anadolu University.

The tradition of Büyükerşen was continued by Prof. Dr. Engin Ataç, who was the Rector during the period I started at Anadolu University, with the “Academic Research Fund Support” and “Second University Without Exams” that he focused on in the 2000s. 

Anadolu University transferred as much research funding as possible to its academics from the revenue obtained from the Faculty of Open Education through the “Academic Research Fund,” and as a result, for the first time, a president was appointed to the 60-year-old TÜBİTAK from outside Ankara and Istanbul.

The pandemic taught a good lesson to those who initially turned up their noses at the “Distance Education” project.

Many universities that were very cold toward distance education and the second university without exams can no longer show resistance. 

Since the compass of many of them is set to America, they will only believe in distance education with the wind that will come from there.

The news coming in shows that American universities have also switched to distance education very quickly. 

Well, the resistance of our own will break soon too.

Those who still continue to work at the university say that funds like the Academic Research Fund and other revenues no longer exist.

Let's say every beautiful day has an end, what else can we say.

Anyway, let's get to the main subject.

Alongside Bilecik, Afyon, Kütahya, Eskişehir Technical, and Eskişehir Osmangazi, which were born from Anadolu University, there is also an expectation for a foundation university.

There are nearly 80 foundation universities in Türkiye, with nearly 50 of them in Istanbul.

Rumors are circulating that some of them are "under-the-stairs" universities.

YÖK has stepped in, and the path for anyone who thinks of it to open a foundation university has been blocked.

They have introduced some numerical rules.

The victimization of students has been prevented.

While there are nearly 80 foundation universities in the country, there is still no foundation university in the city of Anadolu University, which has left its mark on the last 30-40 years of Türkiye.

If you ask if there is a need, I think there is.

1. The safest city in the world

2. Istanbul is now a very expensive city

3. Being a student in Istanbul worries families.

4. The expected Istanbul Earthquake is pushing demand outside of Istanbul.

5. Istanbul traffic is now unbearable.

6. The overhead costs of universities are relatively higher in Istanbul. 

Academics who retire from Anadolu University, which gave birth to 5 universities from its own bosom, head to either Istanbul or Ankara as soon as they retire.

They carry all the added value that Eskişehir created with its own resources to other cities.

I also ate the bread of Eskişehir and Anadolu University for 25 years, gained fame in the construction sector and in academia, wrote books, and brought TÜBİTAK and European Union funds to Anadolu University.

However, we had to leave that beautiful institution due to the very few friends from Pennsylvania and our friends who supported them, who dismantled the system. 

I also unfortunately had to move the “Engineering Management Supply Institute” I founded outside of Eskişehir.

I don't know if there is an economic equivalent to this, but;

“It has eaten the grain of Eskişehir but is laying eggs in the nest of Istanbul” describes the situation perfectly.

I don't know whose duty it is here,

If they asked me, which they won't,

But in my 25 years of being an Eskişehir resident, I know that this task would not be very difficult.

They recently called and invited me for a university to be established in Istanbul.

They collected the founding equity of the university using the method we explained over a free lunch.

They called and thanked me.

I did think about whether they were asking for an IBAN when they called, but nothing came of it other than a strong thank you.

Since the official on the board of trustees was my roommate from university, the thanks were unnecessary anyway.

Maybe they will ask for the IBAN after reading this article.