A Perspective on Turkish Goverment Scholarships

Abstract

The Republic of Türkiye, through the enactment of Law No. 1416 in 1929, continued the Ottoman Empire’s practice of sending students abroad. This law has served as a crucial tool for addressing the country’s need for qualified human capital. Despite changes in economic and educational conditions since then, the process remains of great importance to the nation. However, the effectiveness of the current scholarship system warrants discussion. In its present form, the scholarship primarily provides free research assistants to universities and laboratories abroad, particularly in the United States and European countries. While qualified young human capital is made available to different nations, the scientific developments in these fields are not simultaneously transferred back to Türkiye. Specifically, young minds in doctoral programs, while spending their most active years abroad, rarely establish academic networks with Türkiye during this period, and they acquire knowledge and cultural experiences in a one-sided manner. Global scientific developments, the increased mobility of young people, and the necessity for working in various parts of the world for particular scientific fields, combined with the technical challenges faced by scholarship recipients, call for substantial reforms based on nearly a century of accumulated experience by the Ministry of National Education. In this context, cooperation between the Council of Higher Education and the Ministry of National Education, with increased involvement of universities in the process, and a re-evaluation of the strategic areas of scholarship recipient selection and placement are essential. With the growing number of universities and developing academic infrastructure in Türkiye, it has become crucial that students returning from studying abroad be guided in a more organized and systematic manner.