'Turkey's universities now far from a mindset of uniformity,' says Erdoğan

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) Anatolian Project Publicity Meeting at the Presidential Complex in the capital city of Ankara today (February 4).

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Addressing his audience, Erdoğan said that the number of students in 207 universities increased to 8 million 400 thousand. According to Erdoğan, the rate of "girl students" has increased from 42 percent to 49 percent.

"Our number of faculty members working in our universities also saw a significant increase from 70 thousand to 180 thousand," he added.

'Competitive university'

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Further in his speech, Erdoğan said:

"We are working on new projects to enable our universities to attain a competitive structure on national and international level.

"Our universities, now far from a mindset of uniformity, have been producing different values, they are no longer the copies of one another.

"But, with the habits of the old Turkey, there are still those who are trying to protect their territory which they established by losing their touch with the state and society. There are also those...

"But, God's willing, they will also, step by step, understand that they are the university of this country, they will understand that they are obliged to serve this nation. We keep unmasking the ones marketing their own personal and class interests under the guise of democracy and freedom."

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(DŞ/SD)