Mayor İmamoğlu: Number of Libraries per 100 Thousand İstanbulites is 0.4

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İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu met with the presidents of 12 public and 43 foundation universities of İstanbul at Haliç Congress Center in İstanbul yesterday (December 12).

* Photo: Metropolitan Municipality of İstanbul

Speaking at the organization "We Discuss the Universities of İstanbul", Metropolitan Mayor İmamoğlu stated the following in brief:

'There are 55 universities in İstanbul'

"We do not exaggerate when we say that İstanbul is a city of universities. After Boston, İstanbul is the city with the second highest number of universities across the world. We know that we have 55 successful universities, 12 of which are state universities, in İstanbul.

"The number of young people studying is over 1 million, which is higher than the number of students studying in 4-5 major cities of Turkey combined.

"One out of every three foreign students studying in Turkey receives education in İstanbul. There are 45 thousand students coming from 184 different countries in İstanbul.

"Two out of every three students who have come to Turkey with exchange programs also study in İstanbul.

"There are 60 libraries in total in İstanbul, 39 of them are public libraries and 21 of them are owned by the Metropolitan Municipality of İstanbul. It is very sad that the number of libraries per 100 thousand İstanbulites is 0.4. We want to increase it. This figure is 14 in Zurich, 8.5 in Paris and 3.4 in Tokyo.

"There are 141 campuses in İstanbul. However, our students can reach half of them by using rail systems, but they reach others via metrobus and busses. We currently have relations with universities, but we want to improve these relations further." (DB/SD)