Troll universities of troll academics are in vogue

I have been in academia for years.

My educational journey, which began as a student in the Civil Engineering department at Karadeniz Technical University in 1990, continues as an academic at Nişantaşı University.

I worked at state universities for years.

 I have also been at a private university for three years.

There is a difference between them as stark as black and white.

Private institutions have high economic concerns.

They are trying to find a place for themselves and establish a position in both the national and international arenas.

I have not seen any indication that such a concern exists in the public sector.

Private universities are doing their best to exist in the international student market.

They certainly have shortcomings, but it is also a fact that there is a focus.

Although they are far from the fourth-generation university model, some are trying to integrate into the third.

Otherwise, they would have to say goodbye to the international student system.

Some of the private universities, which number over eighty, are at the one-and-a-half-generation model.

In other words, they have passed the first generation but have not yet grasped the second.

I will not go into more detail and bring trouble upon myself.

The issue I want to dwell on is the academic life that is in a constant downward spiral.

Quality is deteriorating day by day.

The system is molding.

Provincial universities are the most affected by this decay.

I am not writing this grievance based on my feelings.

I am writing it based on the mathematical data I have.

The issue of fake publications has long since passed the point of being manageable.

In recent months, I was appointed as a jury member for an associate professorship evaluation.

The associate professorship application files of 6 candidates arrived.

After a brief review, I rejected them all.

The review was short because it was obvious at first glance that the publications and journals were fake.

While we cannot find data in our own country, these people claim to have accessed some data from Norway and are even giving advice to the Vikings by analyzing that data.

Some are also trying to become associate professors through publications outside their field with their husbands or brothers-in-law.

Saying "God, keep my mind sound," I rejected the whole lot.

I assume the other jury members felt the same way, as no news has arrived yet that the candidates have become associate professors.

I do not know if it will come soon.

Young academics do not want to put in the effort.

Especially those working at private universities may resort to illegitimate methods due to the pressure to publish.

The rate of these illegitimate methods is just as high among those in the public sector.

Those who want to become associate professors early or get this done before the oral exam for associate professorship returns are more aggressive regarding illegitimate means.

They want to become associate professors with shoddy publications made in paid journals without receiving a single citation and without conducting any research projects.

When they produce publications, they are not after simplicity but after a score.

The "turnstile" academics who put their names on every article in rotation are also a problem of the system.

To these academics, it would be appropriate to respond with the cry of a cult leader staying at a village headman's house in an Aziz Nesin story, who, after getting drunk on vodka mixed into compote and beating up the tough guys at the town tavern, shouted: "You both drink alcohol and do not pray, yet you want to enter heaven; you're not going to heaven, no way!"