Access, Qualifications and Social Dimension of Syrian Refugee Students in Turkish Higher Education

Abstract

Forced migration has been a crucial social phenomenon in the last decade. It has had inevitable impacts on higher education in the world and EHEA in particular. Since 2011, the Syrian refugee population living in Turkey increased to 3.3 million, which makes Turkey the country with the most refugee population in the world. As of 2017, 14,740 Syrian students were enrolled in 140 Turkish higher education institutions. However successful, enrolling has been a challenging experience for both the students and the Turkish universities in terms of recognition of qualifications, admission procedures and quality among other difficulties. This paper, which aims to investigate the access routes, qualifications and social dimension of the Syrian refugees studying in Turkish universities, is based on quantitative data gathered during a project called “Elite Dialogue” completed in May 2017. The field research involved 497 university students who participated in the interviews, of whom 395 filled in the online interviews and 102 participated in the face to face interviews during workshops in four cities (Istanbul, Ankara, Gaziantep, and Mardin). The questions were designed to learn about their academic and social inclusion into the Turkish higher education system. Therefore, the interviews consisted of questions relating to their academic background to understand if they had attended a university or received any degree in their home country. The interviews also covered their experience in accessing Turkish universities, the quality of the education experience, their qualifications and the barriers they have faced so far. Lastly, the financial and social conditions they face, the social, financial and academic level of their families, and their future plans for employment were investigated. New legislative rules and implementations, a new understanding of the access routes in a centralized higher education system, new approaches to the recognition of prior learning, new programs to overcome language barriers and to keep the quality high are the challenges that Turkey has been facing in the last five years. The findings of the research, analyzed in the paper, will hopefully contribute to overcoming the new challenges of refugees in higher education in Turkey and in the EHEA.