"Universities Will Replace Caravanserais"

The international conference on "Cultural and Architectural Interactions of the Countries on the Silk Road," the first event of the International Silk Road Universities Consortium founded through the joint initiative of Bahçeşehir University and Japan's Mukogawa University, was held with strong participation from academia and the world of architecture.

Delivering the opening speech of the conference, which brought together prominent names from the international community, Bahçeşehir University Chairman of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel said that Bahçeşehir and Mukogawa Universities, as universities of two countries at the westernmost and easternmost ends of the Asian continent, had taken the initiative and were working to establish a new platform to increase knowledge sharing and cooperation among Asian countries. Stating that the Consortium's fundamental aim would be to improve the quality of higher education in Asia and strengthen its Asian dimension, similar to the Erasmus program in Europe, Enver Yücel said, "The stopping places on the Silk Road were caravanserais; today's stopping places will be universities."