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Services Exporters’ Association (HİB) announced the Export Champions of 2020. BAU became the Export Champion in “Educational Services”
Despite the pandemic, firms that showed successful performance and provided the sector with approximately 35 billion dollar exportation and 11,5 billion dollars foreign trade surplus were awarded for their success. Plaques were presented to the firms for their success that rank among the top three in 17 Categories consisting of sub-sectors within HİB. The owner of the biggest export award in the educational services field was Bahçeşehir University, which has close to 6.500 international students from 123 different countries. BAU gives education opportunities to thousands of international students per year and with the advantage of having many departments, it is among the most preferred universities of students abroad.
Export Champion of Turkey in Educational Services field BAU Chairman of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel expressed that: “Education is the only export without import share. We are, as a university, aware of the importance of international students. We shouldn’t consider this not only as an economic profit, but we should also remember that this means people are growing with Turkey’s culture and will reflect this culture when they return to their countries. When these people start to run their own companies, become political or economical leaders of their country, they will spread the vision of Turkey to their country. We know that the United States of America has been doing this to the whole world for centuries through education. Therefore, as we increase our international student number with education, we see that this is a study that will reflect on the economic table and region leadership of the country.”
“Universities offering English education will be effective on gaining international students”
Yücel, after emphasizing that according to the world bank’s data, an international student puts down approximately 30 thousand dollars in a year to the country, also said: “This money becomes an important number when you count in every component like transportation, accommodation. Turkey is working towards the 500 thousand students goal, in the direction of the goal set by our president. Right now it has more than 200 thousand international students. In this sense, Turkey has many opportunities. One of the biggest advantages is that our country is a 4-hour flight distance to almost 60 countries. Therefore, we are a country of critical importance for many young people to reach Europe and continue their education there, as it has easy access to international students and is a gateway to Europe. We can easily reach 500 thousand international students using our advantages. Government’s and YÖK’s vision would be enough on this matter. Universities need to work a little more. The most critical point here is English education that has international validity.”
Lastly, stating that when accepting international students there should be a couple of goals set, Yücel also said: “The first of these is to increase in number and contribution to our exports, that is, to the money Turkey earns. Secondly, Turkey should be more sensitive about admitting quality students. In this respect, we suggest introducing rules with certain criteria in some fields, especially in fields such as Medicine, Dentistry, and Engineering. From this point, we think that the education sector is one of the most important sectors for the realization of our future vision economically. Education is an industry that is changing our society. Universities are the engine of this. It is important to develop our universities following international identity,"
TR
