Turkey is increasingly becoming a regional hub for international students. The number of international students in Turkish universities has grown by almost 300% in the last decade. The current internationalization efforts of the Turkish government and universities have the potential to make Turkey an even more attractive destination for international students, especially from surrounding regions. This remarkable growth comes with some opportunities and challenges that deserve close attention. This study explores the factors influencing international students' decisions to choose Turkey as their study destination and the challenges they experienced. Data were drawn from 37 international students studying in Turkey through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The results suggest that geographical proximity and cultural, historical, religious and ethnic affinities seem to be very prominent in international students' decisions to study in Turkey as an emerging regional hub. Several other factors including comparable quality of education, affordability of living and education, scholarship opportunities, and recommendations by family or friends are also found to influence their choice of Turkey. The major challenges include lack of adequate guidance and information during pre-and post-arrival processes. Policy recommendations for emerging study destinations such as Turkey are discussed based on the findings.

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Turkey has taken responsibility for by far the largest number of refugees in the world over the past five years. Undoubtedly, hosting almost three million refugees has been neither logistically nor politically easy. This is why the success of sustainable migration policies is crucial in terms of the mutual adaptation of Syrians and the host community in Turkey. Therefore, educating refugees is the most important issue for reaching social agreement. Even though various regulations on education have been implemented in Turkey since 2012, it is hard to affirm the existence of any stable policies on this issue. This study discusses Turkey' s current education policies for Syrian children and sets forth the essentials needed to increase the number of Syrian children being educated and to upgrade educational facilities.