Atatürk's University Reform

In 1933, Atatürk established a reform commission. That year, 90 out of the 150 professors at the Darülfünun were dismissed, and a staff consisting solely of scientists was established. In the same year, the Darülfünun was renamed Istanbul University.

Three years prior, in 1930, Atatürk visited the Darülfünun. He did not receive satisfactory answers to the scientific and technical questions he asked. He was saddened. He advocated that the university should be at an international level and capable of competing with other countries. For this reason, when the Darülfünun was transformed into Istanbul University in 1933, 1 percent of all state revenue was transferred to the university every year.

The university reform carried out under Atatürk's leadership in 1933 is a turning point in Turkish higher education. With Law No. 2252, the Istanbul Darülfünun was abolished and Istanbul University was established in its place. The 90 professors removed from the Darülfünun staff were assigned to different positions within state institutions. None of them were left unemployed!

Professors from abroad were brought to the newly established university. When Germany, a pioneer in science, was occupied by the Nazis at that time, Atatürk saw this as an opportunity and invited many Jewish academics fleeing Germany to Turkey. He had only one request from Germany's valuable academics: that they learn Turkish!

The most valuable professors in their fields came to Istanbul to teach at Istanbul University. Atatürk even wrote a letter to Einstein, inviting him to Istanbul University. At that time, Einstein, a physics professor who did not yet have international recognition, did not accept the invitation to come to Turkey and took refuge in the USA. The fact that Einstein was followed by Atatürk and invited to our country once again reveals the importance and value Atatürk placed on science.

Istanbul University has earned an important place in the Republic of Turkey's higher education tradition as the "University of Firsts." The deep-rooted university has always served as a bridge between the past and the future of Turkish academia. From the Darülfünun era to the present day, many physicians, academics, jurists, scientists, and politicians who played a role in Turkey's development graduated from Istanbul University.

For this reason, the decision to cancel the 31-year-old diploma of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the elected mayor of Istanbul and a graduate of Istanbul University, Turkey's most deep-rooted and prestigious university, will go down in our history as a scandal.

Istanbul University students took the first step, saying, "The diploma taken from İmamoğlu today could be taken from us tomorrow. Instead of protecting the impartiality of science and academia, the institutional reputation of our university has been damaged by this decision." The rightful uprising of Istanbul University students broke the wall of fear in the country. The current resistance map of Turkey, where the locomotive power is the youth, has reached Northern Cyprus, Europe, and many cities in the USA.

The 301 young people who were detained and arrested during the protests in Istanbul are unfortunately still being held inside. The lawyers of the Istanbul Bar Association, who did not leave them alone and shared their situation with the public, stated that the young people were subjected to bullying by some judicial prisoners. Their mothers and fathers began to keep watch in front of Silivri Prison to support their children. They established the Mother-Father Solidarity Network. They share the current situation on their social media accounts and are waiting for support for their children. One thinks that the most genuine support should have come from the scientists who taught these students. METU showed its strength here as well. METU professors marched with their students. This solidarity must grow, and the 301 young people must get out of the dungeon they do not deserve...