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of educational experience leads to intellectual rigidity and does not encourage the young to think for themselves. The older universities in Turkey seem, on the whole, to be satisfied with their performance and to resent as unwarranted intrusions on their autonomy suggestions that they modernise their teaching methods, undertake more empirical research in place of the armchair type of theorising many professors prefer, and generally address themselves more to the problems of the rapidly changing Turkish community. The newer universities, on the other hand, notably the Middle East Technical University and Hacettepe, are attempting to introduce innovations in higher education including closer teacher-student relations, greater reading, laboratory and field work requirements, the exposure to different points of view, empirical research, a practical orientation, and more emphasis on the university's relationship with and responsibility to the community. These innovations are not popular with the more traditional universities, whose professors seem to feel that the pre-eminence they had long enjoyed is being threatened by upstart institutions. Their response to the challenge, as Professor Okyar points out, has been legal rather than substantive argument. It would be a healthy development if the educational innovations being introduced by the newer universities were to lead older institutions to reappraise their approach and methods. There are signs that this process is beginning. In fact, the continuing evolution of Turkish higher education which is so necessary if the universities are to play their proper role in a developing society can probably best be achieved with a healthy degree of diversity and with the possibility always kept open for the creation of new institutions promoting new approaches. Nothing could be more damaging to Turkish development than insistence that all institutions be tied to a rigid formula laid down in the past. Yours faithfully, E D W I N J. C O H N Ankara.
22 March, 1968 S i r , - - I have read with great interest the article written by Professor Okyar on Turkish universities. 1 It is always a very difficult task to analyse a complex institution such as a university and it is understandable that certain divergences of view will be a natural consequence in such an issue. I should like to begin by commending Professor Okyar for the clear and fair picture he gives in connection with higher education in Turkey. The short comments or, more precisely, certain elaborations that I shall make about his 10kyar, Osman, " Universities in Turkey ", Minerva, VI, 2 (Winter, 1968), pp. 213-243.
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paper will deal with scientific and technological education because my own experience has been in those fields. First, I would like to make a few remarks about the University Law No. 4,936. This law was promulgated in 1946 when there were only three universities in Turkey, namely, Istanbul University, the Technical University of Istanbul and A n k a r a University, which was then in the process of establishment. It provided great autonomy for universities for the first time and enabled these institutions to expand and develop. This law of 1946 served admirably when it was first promulgated. It brought dignity and high prestige to university academic staff. Young graduates were sent abroad in great numbers, new chairs were established, new disciplines started. Many foreign university teachers preferred to come to Turkey because of post-war economic conditions in Europe. Initially the salaries of the teaching staff, if taken together with supplementary allowances, were to some extent comparable with those of other educated professions. In the early fifties a number of factors appeared which slowed down the initial rate of development, though physical expansion continued. Worldwide competition for distinguished scientists deprived Turkish universities of most of their foreign professors, and still more important the '~ brain d r a i n " of the young generation of graduates started for the first time and became a serious matter. A n academic career became unattractive for young graduates, because of the rapid rise in the cost of living when salary scales remained at the same level. Private industry and even government departments offered much higher salaries to a young engineer than a full professor received. The universities were forced to recruit as assistants average or below-average talents instead of the brightest graduates. Despite all these adverse effects, the universities continued to expand and today all the new universities established before and after 1960 are staffed mainly with the graduates of the older Turkish universities. The second point of great concern is the critical situation in natural sciences. Talented lycde graduates are eager to enter into the engineering and medical faculties because these lead to a remunerative profession, while the basic sciences are largely neglected. Despite the fact that the Research Council is offering liberal scholarships in the basic sciences, little success has been achieved up to the present in attracting capable young students to mathematics, physics and biology. Until Turkish industry is developed to the point where research departments are established in industrial firms, it will be very difficult to remedy this situation, which is closely connected with employment opportunities and promotion. The third point I would like to raise bears on research. Research is concentrated in universities. However, as university education is demanded by more and more lyc~e graduates every year, university teachers are forced to devote more of their time to teaching. In fact the general understanding is that teaching has to be done first and if there is enough time left and means available then research may be undertaken. In addition, the feebleness of research
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traditions in Turkey in science and engineering deprives the research worker of incentives to do research; indeed with certain exceptions the majority of r e search projects are carried out to meet requirements for academic promotion. This is a fact for both old and newly established universities. Research grants provided by the Research Council during the last three or four years have stimulated research activities. A survey carried out by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey in 1964 shows that the research output is rather low in fundamental and applied sciences. A research unit which consists o f a group of persons with the considerable freedom enjoyed by chairs in faculties, departments or institutes works on average on only two projects per year and publishes about one paper every two y e a r s . Of course there are exceptions but the performance as a whole is poor. Measured by the number of publications in well-known foreign periodicals, the medical faculty of Istanbul University and the Technical University of Istanbul have done much better than the others. This survey also provided information about the factors hampering research in engineering, fundamental sciences, medical sciences and agriculture according to the opinion of the directors of 254 research units. The main factors according to these sources were low salaries, too few posts, lack of adequately trained personnel, difficulty of obtaining equipment and supplies, lack of buildings and facilities and insufficient funds for research. They also mentioned administrative and financial rules and regulations, undue emphasis on teaching, the weight of routine work and lack of coordination and collaboration between research units. One recent development in the field of higher education is the emergence of private colleges during the last couple of years, especially in the field of engineering. Their number is increasing rapidly and there were 10 colleges in 1967 with an enrolment of about 20,000 students. These colleges draw their teaching staff from universities, which aggravates the research situation in the universities. The upshot of all this is that the problems associated with university education in Turkey are at a critical stage and unless spectacular measures are taken to improve salary conditions and recruit and train new staff members the prospects for the future are poor. Today there are eight Turkish universities. Healthy scientific competition must exist between universities in order to create a favourable scientific climate and to enable the universities to keep up with world developments. F o r a long time the old institutions were unchallenged. There was no possibility of mobility for the academic staff and this caused stagnation in many disciplines. N o w the university law must be revised in the light of the experience of the past 20 years and the requirements of the present. Salary conditions must be improved, physical facilities must be renovated. Mobility between the universities, industrial firms and government research laboratories should be encouraged. The relations of the universities, industry and government must be improved in many important respects and new university laws should contribute to this. The educational system must be adapted to the newer trends
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and needs of Turkish society and new disciplines should be introduced into the traditional teaching of scientific subjects. Today we have different types of laws for various universities. However, one fact remains unquestionable and any revision of the law must bear this in mind. The quality of the teaching staff is always the decisive factor in universities. Yours faithfully, M. N I M E T O Z D A S Technical University of Istanbul.
THE UNIVERSITIES, THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE 11 April, 1968 S i r , - - I am delighted that your correspondents 1 agree that the structure of university finance needs study and reform, but I am surprised and disappointed that they should react so unfavourably to my suggestion of a parliamentary committee. Both parliament and the universities are in difficulties; neither of them seems ,to have the confidence of the public; neither of them can really claim to be efficient or to satisfy ~he needs of society. Many of the difficulties which beset both of them could be solved were they to study each other's operations, yet this idea seems to be too alarming to con.template. The point that I was ~trying to m a k e - - a n d I repeat i t - - i s that many of the problems of the universities are at least as much political as they are academic and I do not believe that they can be solved, even in principle, by any body other than parliament. They are quite beyond the competence of the universities themselves or of the vice-chancellors. I do not think that government departments (as they exist today) will ever be able to resolve them. Royal Commissions and committees have reformed our universities before, but I do not think that they could face some of the tasks which I enumerated in my article. 2 I think that only a committee of either one or both houses would have the understanding and the authority to do the work. The new Committee on Science and Technology is proving to be far more effective than anyone had dared to hope and its achievements should persuade even the most sceptical .that select parliamentary committees can and will be useful in this country in future, if only they get adequate support. 1 Beloff, Max, and James, Walter, Letters to the Editor, Minerva, VI, 2 (Winter, 1968), pp. 264-267. 2 Lord Bowden, " The Universities, the Government and the Public Accounts Committee ", Minerva, VI, 1 (Autumn, 1967), pp. 28-42.
