Among many other projects conducted for international students, Türkiye Scholarships, run by the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), has a significant function. Türkiye Scholarships, which came into effect as a more comprehensive version of the government’s scholarship program in terms of scope and geography after being revised with the foundation of YTB, was introduced in 2012 as a foreign policy instrument and a dynamic supporter of the works conducted in this field in line with government programs.

While scholarship opportunities in Turkey for higher education were hardly heard about before 2012, today, a whole slew of promising young people from Latin America, the Far East and disadvantaged regions of Africa choose Turkey in order to pursue their studies. This is all thanks to Türkiye Scholarships.

The most striking example of this can be given from Africa. In the “2017 Report on the International Mobility of African Students” published by Campus France, a French national agency for the promotion of higher education, Turkey ranked 34th in 2010 among the countries chosen by African students. In 2015, Turkey ranked 13th as the number of African students choosing Turkey for their studies increased nine times within these five years. Turkey’s comprehensive scholarship program is the leading factor that has caused such an increase.

While almost unheard before 2012, today, a whole slew of promising young people from Latin America, the Far East and Africa choose Turkey to pursue their studies. This is all thanks to Türkiye Scholarships.

Consequently, Türkiye Scholarships largely contributes to the internationalization of university education in Turkey and will obviously become of Turkey’s most influential soft power instruments in the long term. The success of individuals who benefited from this program when they return to their home countries will strengthen Turkey’s international lobbying power in the long-run.

In countries that welcome a large number of international students, scholarship programs are thorough and structured. Thanks to the renowned and dynamic scholarship programs that focus on success and offer diversity, many countries are able to increase their number of international students.

In the “2017 Report on the International Mobility of African Students” published by Campus France, Turkey ranked 34th in 2010 among the countries chosen by African students. In 2015, Turkey ranked 13th as the number of African students choosing Turkey for their studies increased nine times within these five years.

Along with countries that have remained the prominent choices of international students, including the UK and U.S., some new actors who have been able to employ an effective scholarship scheme have also emerged. Over the past three years, China has provided scholarships to over 30,000 African students and declared that it intends to increase this number to 50,000 in the upcoming years. Beijing also announced that it will provide short-term training for 50,000 Africans. While the scope and opportunities presented by scholarships vary, it is safe to say that Türkiye Scholarships offers various appealing opportunities to international students.

With the implementation of the Türkiye Scholarships program, monthly grants and facilities such as housing, health, and transportation provided to students have been improved. In addition, students are provided with academic, social, cultural, and professional guidance services, which help them to spend their study years more productively.

The enhancement of the scholarship program has contributed to the appeal of Turkish universities to a large audience in many regions. Parallel to this, Turkey’s share in the international market is one of the primary goals.

At this point, Türkiye Scholarships executed an effective publicity strategy as an international scholarship program that supports the new Turkey vision and foreign policy initiatives. As part of this effective strategy, various international education fairs have been attended, and publicity activities presenting information on schools and universities are organized in the targeted countries. Thanks to the application system that is available in eight languages, an open application possibility, which is accessible almost everywhere in the world has been presented. Thanks to that, alongside the Balkan and Central Asian countries, from which Turkey always draws a large number of international students, applications from the Middle East, Africa and Far East have also soared. 

As the importance of qualified students in terms of increasing the recognition level of scholarship programs is considered, it can be seen that Türkiye Scholarships are preferred mostly by the students ranking in the top levels in their countries. Another important aspect is the professionals who work in important positions in public or private sectors in their countries and prospective academics employed in universities also prefer Turkey and Türkiye Scholarships for graduate education. Parallel to this, the ratio of international students graduating with high achievements in due course of their study periods is increasing each year.

According to an unpublished report by the YTB, the overall number of applications filed between 2012 and 2018 was over than 600,000. In 2018 alone, over 132,000 applications were received from 156 countries.

The number of applications that are received can also be taken as an indication of the worldwide recognition of Türkiye Scholarships. Today, an average of 100,000 students from around 160 countries annually apply to Türkiye Scholarships. According to an unpublished report by the YTB, the overall number of applications filed between 2012 and 2018 was over than 600,000. In 2018 alone, over 132,000 applications were received from 156 countries. Each year around 4000-5000 students are selected for the scholarships. Currently, over 16,000 students receive education in Turkey thanks to Türkiye Scholarships. Among the total of 125,000 international students in Turkey, the ratio of students with Türkiye Scholarships is around 13 percent. At this point, it can be seen that the scholarship program makes substantial contributions to the international recognition of higher education opportunities in Turkey.

Throughout 2018, the majority of applications were received from the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Far and South Asia, the Balkans, and European countries.

From the locations of applications, it can also be inferred that Türkiye Scholarships addresses a broad geography. Throughout 2018, the majority of applications were received from the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Far and South Asia, the Balkans, and European countries. By this, it can be stated that Türkiye Scholarships appeals to students from almost all parts of the world. Students coming from less-developed countries are hosted in various cities of Turkey as potential envoys that will enable interaction between Turkey and their countries in cultural, political, and economic terms.

We are currently witnessing serious competition in the field related to hosting international students. Many countries engage in multi-sector cooperation and manage this realm as a strategic field in which public diplomacy, politics, and economy intertwine. In this sense, Turkey is required to manage and improve its international student policy and scholarship programs more dynamically. It is of critical importance to support the country’s policies o international students, which will render Turkey capable to compete with others across the world. A strategy that will effectively coordinate the cooperation between civil society, the public and private sectors will ramp up Turkey’s competitive power. As is the case in most fields in today’s rapidly changing world, ensuring dynamism and introducing novelties by targeting quality will guarantee more achievements in this field as well.

Several factors, including the quality of education, living conditions, language of instruction, and employment opportunities before and after the graduation, influence the country choice for an international student. Perhaps the most important of these factors is the visa requirements and immigrant policies, which in many ways reflect the perception of foreigners in a country. Recent developments in the UK and the US, the two most preferred destinations for international students, indicate that there would be a decrease in the flow of students and scholars to these countries. It also implies that there would be fluctuations in the distribution of the ever-growing number of international students on the global scale. This essay will first briefly discuss the recent developments in the UK and the US and will address rising opportunities for Turkey in the higher education sector.In addition to the problems that emerged with the EU on student exchange programs and related projects in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, several new decisions of the UK government to reduce net migration to the country have already made international students and scholars there, or planning to go there, uncomfortable. Theresa May, the new Prime Minister, argues that UK universities should develop sustainable funding models that are not so dependent on international students. A tightened visa regime, tougher employment conditions for international students after graduating, and the inclination of the government to include these students in net migration figures – which it is desperately trying to reduce – have already begun to reveal some of its initial results. According to a report by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), the number of undergraduate students accepted from outside the EU fell by 2.3% in 2016, the first fall since 2011. This statistic reflects the decrease in both applicants and the acceptance rate. It appears that the decrease in the number of applicants seems not only limited to the non-EU countries. Although all the figures are not yet available, the number of applicants from the EU countries to Cambridge University, which has an earlier application deadline, has already seen a 17% drop.

Considering that international students are contributing £7 billion a year to UK universities and the country’s economy, several leading names from the academic and economic sectors called for urgent action to remove the international students from official immigration statistics. They also urged the authorities to change their rhetoric and policies and claimed that if this was not done, the existing policy would cause great damage to higher educational institutions and to the UK economy. According to the experts, when there is low funding from international students it will not only have negative effects on research funds but will also effect the possibility of entering higher education institutions for English students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. These students will face difficulties in finding scholarships.

Trump’s US presidential election win sparked a hot debate among political analysts to estimate its effects on local and international politics. Some others have already started discussing how it would influence the higher education sector in the US. Trump’s xenophobic views and call for a ban on Muslims entering the US have pushed experts into pessimism since they realized the negative impact of this rhetoric on the internationalization of the higher educational institutions in the country. While the experts warned authorities about the undesirable effects of this rhetoric, it is reported that some of the international scholars who are teaching at US universities have already begun to revise their careers plans.

In a report in University World News dated November 11, 2016, Philip G. Altbach and Hans de Witt, two renowned experts in the field of higher education, pointed to three potential risks to the internationalization of the US higher education system under Trump. These risks are: a fall in the flow of international students to the US, the US becoming less attractive for international scholars due to the political climate, and a fall in donations from international graduates, an important revenue income for the higher institutions in the country. It will not be surprising to see that when international students and scholars face more stringent visa policies and Muslims are increasingly scrutinized by security services, it will result in potential students looking to other destinations where they can feel more comfortable and welcomed.

While it is still early to predict to what extent these risks will materialize, it is certain that many other countries will update their higher education policies and expectations for internationalization. The flow of international students and scholars, often defined based on push and pull models and pull-in factors, is still prevalent in the US and UK. The two countries still host the largest number of international students in the world. Recent political developments, however, point to an increased potential for push factors both in the US and the UK. Given the large body of international students, this may lead, although slowly, to a new break in terms of the international network of higher education and the emergence of new centers of attraction in the world. It is not difficult to claim that the countries, which are in an advantageous position in terms of internationalization of their higher education institutions, will implement proactive policies to attract more international students and scholars.

Turkey, a regional and global actor with its strong economy and great transformation in the higher education system, has the potential to take a strong place in this new formation. The Council of Higher Education (YÖK) in Turkey is working hard to develop joint projects with higher education institutions all around the world. Support programs of the Ministry of Economy for overseas education fairs, the priority given by the Ministry of Development to internationalization in higher education in state planning, Turkish scholarships and other grants provided by the Prime Ministry for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), and the Yunus Emre Institute’s branch offices in different regions of the world, have already made great contributions to the internationalization of higher education in the country. Turkey, which has no xenophobic record in its culture and historical trajectory when one compares it with the West, needs to develop a new stand that will turn the recent political developments in world politics to its favor. Turkey has the potential to become a safe and secure place for all international students and scholars, especially from Muslim countries. The current distribution of international students in Turkey, which varies greatly, reflects its potential and advantageous position in this regard.

Amidst perpetual perception boosting operations, Turkey should prepare itself for aggressive promotion campaigns that will explain to international students and scholars how Turkey is a safe destination for study, teaching, and research. Both public institutions and the Turkish academia have a greater responsibility than ever. The Office of Public Diplomacy should take a more active role in this process. To take the best advantage of this historic opportunity, it is more important now than ever that Turkish authorities urgently and systematically improve their policies to make the country a more attractive destination for international students and scholars.