Academic Inflation in Turkey: The Turkish Higher Learning System After the Policy of “A University in Every City”

Abstract

Türk yükseköğrenim sistemi, 1980'li yıllardan bu yana uygulanan "her ile bir üniversite politikası" (HİBÜP) ile birlikte, büyük bir dönüşüm sürecinin içerisine girmiştir. Bu çalışmada, HİBÜP'ün genel olarak Türkiye ekonomisinde, özel olarak da yükseköğrenim sisteminde ölçülebilir ve kalıcı nitelikte bir iyileşmeye yol açmadan, akademik enflasyon sorununa neden olduğunu ileri sürülmektedir. Akademik enflasyon, lisans derecesine sahip mezunların, arzu ettikleri pozisyonlarda ve beklenti içine girdikleri göreceli yüksek ücret seviyelerinde istihdam edilememesi durumudur. Bugün, birçok yazarın "genç işsizlik" adını verdiği yapısal sorunun kaynağında, bilim ve teknoloji alanında politika yapıcıların, akademik enflasyona yol açan HİBÜP konusundaki ısrarı yatmaktadır.

İşsi̇zli̇k Endi̇şesi̇ Ve Bağlamsal Faktörler: Dezavantajli Üni̇versi̇te Öğrenci̇leri̇ Örneği̇

“…The unplanned increase in the number of universities and departments in Turkey in recent years, on the one hand, leads to a loss of qualifications, and on the other hand, leads to an increase in the unemployment rate of university graduates. It is inevitable that academic inflation in Turkey (Yalçıntaş & Akkaya, 2019) will be more destructive for students with low socio-economic status who come to university with the expectation of being employed.…”

Elite Universities as Populist Scapegoats: Evidence from Hungary and Turkey

“…Higher education was perceived as a crucial tool to promote modernization in the early republican years, and rectors were appointed by the President. 43 The advent of the multi-party era in 1946 brought the idea of institutional autonomy into the picture; universities were briefly placed at the heart of the selection procedure, though this did not last very long. With democratic backsliding in the 1970s and 1980s, state control over higher education became more rigid.…”

Does Perceived Employability Affect Life Satisfaction? Findings from Munzur University Students

“…One of the main problems caused by academic inflation, which means a high increase in the number of university graduates (Hesseln and Jackson, 2000;Yi and McMurtrey, 2013;Yalçıntaş, 2019), has been a significant graduate unemployment. 1 After graduation, educated youth in Turkey have to face the corrosive effects of educational stagflation (Brown, 2003), which occurs because the demand for graduates in the labor market remains below the supply of diplomas.…”

“…1 After graduation, educated youth in Turkey have to face the corrosive effects of educational stagflation (Brown, 2003), which occurs because the demand for graduates in the labor market remains below the supply of diplomas. While the large reserves of educated graduates enable employers to gain a competitive edge in shaping wages and working conditions, the criteria to apply for positions gets harder (Yalçıntaş, 2019). Due to the cost concerns of employers, this race in which graduates with the necessary professional equipment and ready for the job are selected (Brown and Souto-Otero, 2020) leads to the reduction of the main purpose of the education process to being employable by both students and universities.…”