Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Istanbul and Ankara last week, demonstrating against the government's proposal to split off faculties from many of Turkey's universities to form "new" schools. The government says the move is a pragmatic way to deal with growth, but many opponents believe the plan is motivated simply by greed and politics, rather than what's best for students.
As Turkey quickly approaches its June 24 elections, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government's radical intervention in higher education is causing turmoil. The intention is to rearrange some faculties from 13 universities — including established, major ones such as Istanbul University — to create new schools. The government’s explanation is that some universities have grown too large to be practical. But many academics and students see the plan as a government effort to gain full control over schools. Thousands of academics signed a petition against the proposal, and there were reports that even patients of Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine joined the protests.
Parliament's Education Commission approved a bill whereby Istanbul University, Ankara’s Gazi University and several other universities in other parts of Turkey are to be divided to form 16 new universities. Four new foundation universities will also be opened. Then there are some proposed name changes. Uludag University will be known as Bursa Uludag University, and Cumhuriyet University will be Sivas Cumhuriyet University, adding to their names the cities where they are located. Erzincan University will be renamed Erzincan Binali Yildirim University in honor of the current prime minister.
Negative reactions have been widespread to all the changes introduced, but the sternest responses have arisen regarding Istanbul University, which was founded in 1453, and Gazi University, which was founded in 1926 by order of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The primary version of the draft bill called for splitting Istanbul Capa Medical Faculty and joining it with several other faculties from Istanbul University to create Istanbul Ibni Sina University, or Avicenna University. (Avicenna, born in Uzbekistan in 980, is known as the father of early modern medicine.)
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