Sixty academics dismissed for harassment in seven years in Turkey

Photo: MP Öznur Çalık/Twitter

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Sixty academics have been dismissed from their posts in Turkey's universities since 2014, according to a statement by Council of Higher Education (YÖK) Chair Yekta Saraç.

In the same period, the YÖK did not approve the expulsion requests for eight academics because allegations were unproven or the incident was verbal harassment, Saraç said at the meeting of a parliamentary investigation committee on violence against women yesterday (June 4).

"As the YÖK, our point of view is that if sexual harassment is proven, we complete expulsion proceedings without imposing lower penalties," said Saraç.

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Thirty-one out of more than 200 universities in the country have support departments for violence against women and there are 113 women research centers, he noted.

There are eight million students and 90,000 lecturers at 129 public and 78 foundation universities, he said. Fifty-one percent of the students are men and 49 percent are women, according to the official figures.

(AA/KÖ/VK)