Ankara
Turkish Prime Ministry's Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) received 51,000 applications in 2013 for "Turkey Scholarships", given annually to foreign university students in Turkey.
27,000 undergraduate and associate degree students applied for Turkey Scholarships whose application expired on June 6 while 24,000 applied for graduate and doctorate level. The highest number of applications were made by Afghan and Somali students for associate degree-undergraduate scholarships while graduate-doctorate scholarships received the most applications from Pakistani, Palestinian, Somali and Afghan students.
Turkish institutions have been providing international students, who wish to receive education in Turkey, scholarships in associate degree, undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs for almost 20 years. Last year, these scholarships were united under the umbrella of "Turkey Scholarships," by YTB, following a branding by review of the scholarship system of 70 countries. Assessing the applications in terms of academic success, YTB aims to award in 2013 scholarships to 4,000 students from 140 countries, to be given monthly TL 500 for undergraduate programs, TL 750 for graduate programs and TL 1,000 for doctorate programs.
President of YTB Kemal Yurtnac told AA in an exclusive interview that they received a record number of applications in 2013, highlighting the huge demand.
Yurtnac reminded their efforts to make Turkey a center of education and stressed that the 2013 applications reached the highest number within the last 20 years, saying "After the establishment of our new online system of registration and application for scholarships, the number of applications increased from 9,000-10,000 to 51,000, which means Turkey serves as a new destination and center of education for those who want to receive higher education abroad."
"Turkey has only 0.7 pct of foreign students while the figure is 20 pct in the United States. Our aim is to turn Turkey into a base of education by providing more opportunities. We have accelerated our efforts to increase the 0.7 pct. We have to keep pace with the US, Britain, China, India and Malaysia, which are the leading countries in higher education," said Yurtnac.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
