Better than not starting? Research university project of Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT Initiatives to build research universities to have world-class universities, the creator and the disseminator of scientific knowledge in knowledge-based economies, are among the most important policy reactions in higher education systems. With an increase in demands on greater accountability, transparency, and efficiency, studies investigating the excellence initiatives of different countries are growing in number. However, the literature on the Research University Project of Turkey is still in the infancy stage. We, therefore, conducted a quasi-experimental study to evaluate the effect of research university project using six-year panel data between 2015 and 2020. Results from the difference-in-differences analysis showed that the research university initiative of Turkey was not successful in differentiating research universities from non-research universities even if the research universities have not lost the quantitative superiority over non-research universities. However, the result also revealed a possible spillover effect of the initiative on non-research universities by the policy intervention that may have created institutional competition and an isomorphic science production pattern to become a research university.