* Photo: Anadolu Agency
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Prof. Dr. Ergin Karadağ, a Faculty Member from Akdeniz University and the Director of its University Research Laboratory (ÜNİAR), has spoken to bianet about his study "The Development of Universities in Turkey".
Emphasizing that the state of academia has been gradually deteriorating in Turkey, Karadağ has indicated, "We do not rank among the top 500 universities of the world anymore. The way things stand, we will not even be among the top 1,000 universities of the world."
Karadağ has been studying on universities in Turkey for the last six months. He has shared the following details about his study:
"While conducting this research, we looked at 'how the academic success of university presidents affect the success of universities." The academic quality and career of a university president have a direct effect on the success of the university in question.
"For instance, until Mustafa Güden was appointed as a president to the İzmir Institute of Technology, it did not have a notable success. However, since Güden was appointed as a president in 2010, the Institute has been achieving more and more academic success over the past eight years.
"Gebze University can also be considered a good example in that regard. After Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün was appointed as a university president, the university has been on the rise.
'No articles of 68 university presidents in international journals'
"However, according to the data of Scopus and Web of Science, which compile international academic/scientific articles, 68 university presidents in Turkey have never published an academic article in an international journal. They have published their works solely in Turkey.
"Moreover, the articles published by 71 presidents have never been cited in an international publication. These are all caused by a lack of meritocracy. The political structure appoint the people close to it as a university president, but, at least, appoint the qualified ones with an academic career.
"The president of Harran University is probably conservative, but he is academically successful. If they continue disregarding the success of university presidents, the already bad condition of academia in Turkey will deteriorate further. Today, we say that 68 university presidents do not have international publications, it will increase incrementally by tens and twenties."
There are currently 196 university presidents in Turkey. According to Web of Science, the following university presidents are the top 10 academically qualified ones: Umran S. - İnan Koç University; Mustafa Verşan Kök - Middle East Technical University; Mehmet Sabri Çelik - Harran University, Yusuf Leblebici - Sabancı University; Eyüp Ertuğrul Karsak - Galatasaray University; Orhan Aydın - Tarsus University; Bahri Şahin - Yıldız Technical University; Abdullah Atalar - İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University; Yusuf Baran - İzmir Institute of Technology; Mustafa Ünal - Akdeniz University. (RT/SD)
