For the first time this year, a panel discussion on education was held at the American Turkish Council’s (ATC) annual conference between the 2nd and 5th of June in Washington DC. Speaker at the panel, Enver Yucel said ‘’A national education is no longer enough. National mentality is no longer enough. Then you should meet all the nations of the world’’.
The 32nd ATC Conference held this Year was made in collaboration with the Turkish-American Business Council (TAİK), the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) and the American Friends of Turkey (AFOT).
Each year, banking and finance, defense and security issues within the framework of the Turkish-American relations were discussed at the conference; this year for the first time a session on education was held. The panel entitled ‘’Investment potential and Expansion Opportunities in Education Sector’’ participated by the head of department of curriculum development in Cambridge Institute Carolyn Aker, chairman of the board of trustees of the Kültür University bahar Akıngüç Günver, Doğan Media International president Nuri Çolakoğlu, Cisco Systems, Avrupa Orta Doğu, president of Russia and Africa Andrew Levive, and founder and president of Bahçeşehir University Enver Yücel was moderated by the American Turkish Council Committee of Education Dr. Burak Kuntay.
AN OFFICIAL EDUCATION PANEL FOR THE FIRST TIME
Dr. Burak Kuntay, on its opening speech remarks that the education between two countries, especially in terms of creating a financial value become very important, therefore for the first time this year they organized an official education panel.
First speaker on the panel, the president of the board of Trustees of the Kültür University Bahar Akıngüç Güner talked about the Culture and Education Institutions and the History of Education in Turkey. She said that with the 1982 Constitution it’s getting easier to set up private schools; in spite of the ‘90s even getting demand from families, due to financial difficulties schools having difficulty in finding students, but the 300 private schools in 1985 become 3149 today. She add that ‘’ although this figure seem pupils, private school rate of 3.2 percent is well below the rate of 25 percent in developed countries. Akıngüç Günver indicates that this figure very soon will rise to 20 percent with incitements, thus the burden on state educational institutions will significantly reduce.
Referring to the question of education quality system in Turkey, Bahar Akıngüç Güner explain that in 2050 Turkey’s population will reach to 99 million; at this date the number of the working population will be 65 million and will create huge opportunities. Akın Güncer said that ‘’ Looking at today’s statistics and estimates, expending internationally encourage the investment opportunities in education and the participation of private sector in all stages of education. Turkey has the appearance of an area very attractive to global investors. However, in spite of all the advantages in past ten years there is not enough foreign direct investment made in education. Stability of economic and politic, removal of barriers in the sector, and a combination of global and local knowledge can change this situation.’’
Carolyn Aker, head of the Curriculum Development Department of Cambridge Institute after speaking about the collaboration of 200 Colleges in America and with the consulting firm named Cambridge Institute activities and sustainable cooperation model established with internationals schools, she specify that education is vital to the success of both countries and she highlighted that educational models used to date are not sufficient in terms of power to compete individually in the globalized economy.
In the speech of the president of Doğan Media International Nuri Çolaköğlu, it is explained that birth rates are falling and that the need for new technologies gradually reduced manpower. Colakoğlu said that it means in the future we will live in world where too many people and very little work will be and underlined that the work life will be a very competitive environment and the education will going forward.
ENVER YÜCEL: ‘’DEVELOPİNG THE CONCEPT OF THE THIRD GENERATION UNIVERSITY IS REQUIRED’’
Çolakoğlu said that in USA today, there are 765.000 foreign students, only 12.000 of them are coming in Turkey and 2.000 American students are studying in Turkey. It means that the potential of Turkish universities is not evaluated. He explained that today due to the law of YÖK’s military regime era in universities, committing between a standard model, research institutes and educational institutions providing only MBA programs there is no difference. He added the projections that with the passage of the new law, new opportunities will come up to foreign universities in Turkey and it will be the trend of the next decade.
While Cisco Systems and president of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia Andrew Levi addressing the issue of technological innovations in education, he said that before working with Cisco he was working with the British government and in this regards, education policies for the five countries he emphasized are: broad-minded leadership, focus on global standards, rational and result-oriented regulations, private sector-government partnership and innovation.
The latter having the speech, founder and president of Bahçeşehir University Enver Yücel said that ‘’the world talks about education, because the world has three major issues: poverty, environment and ethics, and culture of living together. The whole world is looking to find a solution and ask what kind of education we should
provide’’. With spoken about ‘’a national education is no longer enough. National mentality is no longer enough. Then all the nations should meet’’ he said that the need to bring up the issues in all the countries into the concept of world citizenship.
Discussing education in the Conference of the American Turkish Council for the first time in 32 years, as well as after the recent meetings of the Prime Minister Recep tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Barack Obama, Yücel referred to the important place of education in the American-Turkish relations and spooked as following: ‘’ Three years ago, at the same meeting I got an award for my contributions to education between the two countries. I will repeat what I said that day: We are a country attaching great importance to relations with America. My universities and institutions also believe that. But in the 21st century we would that this relationship changes a little and became more sustainable. And for this we will resort to education’’.
Yücel point out that Turkey has become a very important country in terms of educational potential but needs also to increase the education quality; Yücel underlined that for it, it is necess
ary to have competition in education, importance of private sector and that the state have to be the only party which control.
Enver Yücel said ‘’Republic of Turkey is investing heavily in education. Education was a large part of the budget over the last decade. Lot resources have been set aside for research and development activities. In this sense ever to the number of universities, we want to increase the quality of education’’
Enver Yücel saying that Bahçesehir Educational Institutions is serving all levels of education said ‘’but the most important work done is to serve the understanding of global education’’. Yücel said that we should develop the concept of the third generation university. He added that American Universities are very strong and we should seek to repeat the mistakes they made in their past.
Yücel reminded that Bahçeşehir University has recently opened a campus in Washington D.C. he added that for the person who want to study departments as political science and international relations Washington D.C is a major hub. And for the departments such as Technology the campus in Silicon Valley will be beneficial.
TR
