Turkey

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Turkey in a nutshell

Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhichevan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast.

The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea and Archipelago are to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the border between Asia and Europe, thereby making Turkey transcontinental.

The population of Turkey is around 71,892,808 - July 2008 estimate

Due to its strategic location astride two continents, Turkey's culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition. A powerful regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong historic, cultural and economic influence in the area between Europe in the west and Central Asia in the east, Russia in the north and the Middle East in the south, Turkey has come to acquire increasing strategic significance.

Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then, Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West through membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, OSCE and the G-20 major economies. Turkey began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having reached a customs union agreement in 1995. Meanwhile, as a Muslim-majority country, Turkey has continued to foster close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the Eastern world, particularly with the states of the Middle East and Central Asia, through membership in organizations such as the OIC and ECO.

The territory of Turkey is subdivided into 81 provinces for administrative purposes. The provinces are organized into 7 regions for census purposes; however, they do not represent an administrative structure. Each province is divided into districts, for a total of 923 districts.

Provinces usually bear the same name as their provincial capitals, also called the central district. Provinces with the largest populations are İstanbul (+12 million), Ankara (+4.4 million), İzmir (+3.7 million), Bursa (+2.4 million), Adana (+2.0 million) and Konya (+1.9 million).

The biggest city and the pre-Republican capital İstanbul is the financial, economic and cultural heart of the country.[ Other important cities include İzmir, Bursa, Adana, Trabzon, Malatya, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Mersin, Eskişehir, Diyarbakır, Antalya and Samsun. An estimated 70.5% of Turkey's population live in urban centers. In all, 18 provinces have populations that exceed 1 million inhabitants, and 21 provinces have populations between 1 million and 500,000 inhabitants. Only two provinces have populations less than 100,000.

The population of Turkey stood at 71.5 million with a growth rate of 1.31% per annum, based on the 2008 Census. It has an average population density of 92 persons per km². The proportion of the population residing in urban areas is 70.5%. People within the 15–64 age group constitute 66.5% of the total population, the 0–14 age group corresponds 26.4% of the population, while 65 years and higher of age correspond to 7.1% of the total population. According to the CIA Factbook, life expectancy stands at 70.67 years for men and 75.73 years for women, with an overall average of 73.14 years for the populace as a whole

Turkey is officially a secular republic, with no official state religion; the Turkish Constitution provides the freedom of religion and conscience, but does not represent or promote a religion. The population of Turkey is predominantly Muslim (99%) - the majority are Sunni (75%) and a large minority are Alevi (15-25%). The small remainder of the population are mainly Christians and Jews.

Turkey education policy

Education is compulsory and free from ages 6 to 15. The literacy rate is 95.3% for men and 79.6% for women, with an overall average of 87.4%. The low figures for women are mainly due to the traditional customs of the Arabs and Kurds who live in the southeastern provinces of the country.

Turkey education system

The Turkish Education System was built in accordance with Atatürk's Reforms after the Turkish War of Independence. It is a state supervised system which was designed to create skillful manpower for the social and economic process of the country.

The Turkish system mandates 8 years of primary education between the ages of 6 and 14, and in 2001 enrollment of children in this age range was nearly 100%. For 14-18 year olds three or more years of secondary education are available in public, distance-learning, and vocational high schools. About 95% of students attend public schools, but inadequacies of the public system increasingly motivate middle-class parents to seek private education.

In 2001 some 1,273 institutions of higher learning were in operation. Except for the Open Education Faculty (Turkish: Açıköğretim Fakültesi) at Anadolu University, entrance is regulated by a national examination, ÖSS, after which high school graduates are assigned to the limited university space available, according to their performance. Annually, about 1.5 million students graduate from Turkish high schools.

In 2002, the total expenditure on education in Turkey amounted to $13.4 billion, including the state budget allocated through the National Ministry of Education and private and international funds.

High schools

The types of high schools in the Turkish education system include:

• Public High Schools, the standard type
• Anatolian High Schools which provide more lessons in a selected foreign language (English, German or French)
• Anatolian Imam-Hatip High Schools which have the same curriculum as Anatolian High Schools with lessons about religion
• Science High Schools focusing on science education
• Vocational High Schools, which focus on a certain type of profession (such as Tourism Vocational High Schools, Industrial Vocational High Schools and Electrical Vocational High Schools)
• Imam-Hatip High Schools, a different type of general high school with lessons about religion
• and finally, Private High Schools, which are established by private enterprises.

There were 7934 High Schools in Turkey as of 2007.

Higher education

(again sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Turkey)

After the national university entrance examination ÖSS (Turkish: Öğrenci Seçme Sınavı) organized by ÖSYM, if they succeed, students continue with their studies at a university.

Universities provide either two or four years of education for undergraduate studies. Some universities also ask for an additional year of English preparatory study to be completed before the start of studies, unless a proficiency examination is passed.

For graduate studies, a further two years are necessary, as is typical throughout the world.

There are around 820 higher education institutions (including over 100 universities) with a total student enrollment of over 1 million.

Major universities are located in Istanbul and Ankara.

Tertiary education is the responsibility of the Higher Education Council, and funding is provided by the state for public institutions that make up the bulk of the tertiary education system.

Universities in Turkey

There are 118 universities in Turkey, which are classified as either public or foundational (private) and 373,353 students were graduated from these universities in 2006. Public universities typically charge very low fees and foundational are highly expensive with fees that can reach $15,000 per annum, and as such, a majority of students in tertiary education attend public institutions. Since 1998, universities have been given greater autonomy and were encouraged to raise funds through partnerships with industry.

The quality of education at the Turkish universities varies greatly, some providing education and facilities on par with internationally renowned schools (for the technical universities, often compared with the universities in the United States, as there are several Turkish universities regularly visited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the recognized U.S. accreditor of college and university programs, and their engineering programs deemed substantially equivalent to comparable programs at the U.S. universities), and these reflect as the popularity of a university in students' choices at the ÖSS examination.

Turkish universities actively participate in the Socrates - Erasmus program of the European Commission, aiming to increase student and academician mobility within the European Union, the European Economic Area countries, and other EU candidate states. An increasing number of Turkish university students complete a part of their studies abroad at other participating countries' universities, and Turkish universities receive students of the same status from abroad.

With the passage of law 2547, the rectors of all the public universities are appointed jointly by the faculty, Higher Education Council and the President of Turkey

Wikipedia reports in the List of universities in Turkey that there are 146 universities and academies in Turkey:

• 102 of them are State Universities (two of which are institutes of technology, four of which are technical universities and one of which is an Arts and Music-only university)
• 24 private foundation universities
• 4 military academies
• 1 police academy.

Since the list is long and comprehensive we do not repeat it here. A shorter list is the list of the 18 members of IAU - this is repeated below (see http://www.unesco.org/iau/members_friends/mem_membinst1.html)

1. Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi
2. Akdeniz University
3. Ankara University
4. Atatürk University
5. Baskent University
6. Bogaziçi University
7. Canakkale 18th March University
8. Eastern Mediterranean University
9. European University of Lefke
10. Girne American University
11. Hacettepe Üniversity
12. Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi
13. Istanbul Technical University
14. Mugla University
15. Near East University
16. Sakarya University
17. Suleyman Demirel University
18. Uludag Üniversity

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