20 state dormitories closed in Turkey in a year

* Photo: Barınamıyoruz (We cannot find housing) Movement - Twitter account

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The Social Democracy Foundation Youth Organization (SODEV Youth) has released its report on "Dormitory Problem at Higher Education."

The SODEV Youth report has shown that the number of students in Turkey increased by 60,962 (1.62 percent) in a year and became 3,801,294 in the 2020-2021 school year. As for the capacity of dorms, it dropped by 17,341 (2.47 percent) in a year and became 685,834.

According to the report, in the years of 2020-2021, 20 state dorms of the Higher Education Credit and Hostels Institution (KYK) were closed. On a provincial basis, the number of beds has dropped by 426 in İstanbul, 196 in Ankara and 156 in İzmir over the last year.

When it comes to the capacity of dorms, there are 32 students per bed in İstanbul, 11 students each in Ankara and İzmir, 10 students in Bursa, 7 students in Mersin, 6 students in Antalya, 5 students in Dyarbakır, 4 students each in Adana and Konya and 3 students in Erzurum.

While there are 802,131 university students in İstanbul, the most crowded city of Turkey, the total capacity of dorms is 12,488 for women and 12,163 for men, which accounts for 24,651 beds in dorms in total.

As for the capital city of Ankara, where there are 311,562 university students, the total capacity of dormitories is 27,693 (18,684 for women, 9,009 for men). In İzmir, where there are 173,611 university students, the capacity of dorms is 15,717 (9,373 for women, 6,344 for men).

Noting that as of July 2020, 66 percent of the 2,311 higher education dorms across the country belong to foundations, associations and private businesses, the SODEV Youth has underlined that 739 KYK state dorms (34 percent) fall very short of meeting the current demand.

Minister said the capacity was 720 thousand

In a statement on September 22, Minister of Youth and Sports Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu said that the capacity of dorms and beds affiliated with the Ministry increased by almost four times in the last 19 years. According to the Minister, the number of dormitories increased from 190 to 768 and their capacity increased from 182 thousand to 720 thousand in this period.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet a day later, the Minister said that there were 624,136 applications to the dormitories of the KYK. He announced that 362 thousand applicants were placed in dormitories. Minister Kasapoğlu said, "In the normal process, we place 90 percent of the applicants. There has been a jam due to the pandemic. But we will mobilize all means."

The Minister also said that "the number of beds has increased by 216 thousand in four years," adding that most of them were completed during the pandemic. He said that a capacity of 64 thousand would be offered soon as "they were making hard efforts to manage it."

Student credits dropped from 153 to 78 USD

The SODEV Youth has also mentioned the economic hardships faced by the young in Turkey. Sharing data about the KYK student credits' loss of value in 20 years, the SODEV Youth has indicated that while a student could exchange her or his credit of 240 lira for 153 US dollars in 2011, a student can now exchange her of his credit of 650 lira for 78 US dollars.

Other reports also show that in addition to the depreciation of the Turkish Lira against foreign exchange, high inflation rates have also contributed to the decrease in purchasing power of student credits. When calculated based on the inflation rates, it is seen that 45 lira in 2002 accounted for 272 lira in June 2020, which shows that a university student's monthly credit/ scholarship, in fact, saw a two-fold real increase in this period.

Concluding its report, the SODEV Youth has noted that though the Court of Accounts detected some deficiencies at the buildings to be rented as KYK dorms in its 2018 audit report, the buildings were still rented without making sure that the related deficiencies were eliminated. (KÖ/SD)