Evaluation of University Students opinions about the quality of education in Universities and the Higher Education Council in Turkey

Evaluation of University Students opinions about the quality of education in Universities and the Higher Education Council in Turkey

A. Murat Tuncer, PhD.
AMT Consultancy, Turkey
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2023.10510

Received: 07 April 2023; Accepted: 18 May 2023; Published: 14 June 2023

Abstract: Four hundreds eighty-six (486) university students investigated the opinions of Turkish University Students on Quality of University Education and Higher Education Council.
Mostly public universities (%64.2), and they are from 34 different universities; 486 university students with an associate degree, undergraduate and graduate and postgraduate university students between the ages of 18-65 filled out the questionnaire (Tuncer 2023).
There were ten questions about the Higher Education Council’s (YÖK) thoughts, university rectorate appointment and election, university, and academic autonomy. In addition, with a question about the most important critical or essential for university students, the perception of student problems was tried to be learned. As 4 out of 486 students did not complete most of the questions, they were eliminated and the evaluation was made on 482 students (Tuncer 2023) (This study was produced from the data of A.Murat Tuncer’s PhD thesis).
Out of all students 62.3% women, 91.2% were single, and 57.9% of the students lived on family assistance. 61.1% of the students live on less than 3000 TL per month. 24.5% live in the dormitory, and 56.8% living with their own family. 89.1% of students assessed the performance of the Higher Education Council as not working well. 14.6% of the students considered the universities are free in Turkey. 42.5% of university students perceive university free as academic, financial, and administrative, 36.5% of the students want the university rector to be elected by voting in which all components of the university, namely students, faculty members, and administrative staff, will participate together. 80.6% of the students think that there is no equality in access to education in our country. Although the majority do not have an opinion on whether to enter the university with an exam or not, 40.6% of the students have a favorable view of the baccalaureate-style general examination test at the end of high school.43.7% of the students do not find it appropriate to give scholarships based on their exam scores.
Regarding the quality of university education, 38.5% of the students are neither good nor bad, 34.9% find it high quality and 26.6% find it poor quality.
The beginning of most critical problems mentioned is missing problems and the colorlessness of social life.
It was also evaluated whether the students were from private and public universities and whether there were significant differences in the answers given according to the years in the university.

Keywords: High Education Council, Rector Appointment, University Autonomy, Academic Freedom, University Autonomy, Academic Freedom, Independent of University, Rector Appointment, Rector Election, Quality in Education, University Issues and Problems.

I. Introduction

The quality of university education and the administrative style of universities have often been the subject of discussion not only in Turkey (Tuncer 2022), but all over the World (Pausits 2015). Unfortunately what university students think about this issue has not been considered. While the issue of Higher Education Council reform was on the agenda, I wanted to examine what university students thought about this issue.

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