İlber Ortaylı reveals the number of students dropping out of university: The primary culprit is YÖK, the second goes beyond YÖK

Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı, in his article published in Hürriyet, drew attention to the number of students who dropped out of university between 2018 and 2022.

Emphasizing that 1 million 967 thousand university students have left school, Ortaylı said, "The entire fault here lies with YÖK increasing quotas and imposing a capacity that exceeds limits with an irresponsibility that makes students' educational lives difficult." Pointing to the cost-of-living crisis, Ortaylı added, "The second responsibility, of course, goes beyond YÖK."

In today's article, Ortaylı noted the following:

"The Turkish public needs to change its fixed idea that a good child comes out of law school. We are at a ridiculous record level with the number of law faculties approaching 200. This is the highest number of universities in Europe. According to this report, private schools do not stand out much in the top 25 universities where student dropout is common, but it will strike as you go down the list. This is not the tragic part; among the top 25 universities, Anadolu University has 78 thousand, followed by Antalya Akdeniz University with 65 thousand, Ankara Gazi University, and Istanbul University. Marmara University, Ege University, Dokuz Eylül University, and İzmir Ege are also in the top ranks."

Raising the question, "So why are the students of these institutions dropping out of the race?" Ortaylı stated:

"As I said, the entire fault here lies with YÖK increasing quotas and imposing a capacity that exceeds limits with an irresponsibility that makes students' educational lives difficult. The second responsibility, of course, goes beyond YÖK; unfortunately, the young person studying at a private university does not have the financial means found in these university students. They are leaving in the face of the difficulties of life. The high records belong not so much to students who cannot manage the work and try to earn a living elsewhere, but to those who have no place to stay and no bread to eat. This is an alarm. Otherwise, while being disappointed with the poor quality of education is a serious reason, the record in this field cannot belong to these mentioned universities."

Ortaylı commented, "We need to admit students who will succeed at university to university."

News Source: 12punto