Aslıhan Altay Karataş - President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the 2026-2027 Academic Year Opening Ceremony held at Beştepe Nation Congress and Culture Center. President Erdoğan briefly said the following in his speech:
SOLIDARITY WITH GAZA STUDENTS: Haran University's Polyphonic Choir Group performed a recital called "What We Forgot on the Other Side of the Euphrates". This composition, dedicated to the children of Gaza whose right to life and education was taken away, impressed us greatly and took us to a very different spiritual climate. Today, I express once again and especially that even if the barbarians wearing the mask of civilization forget, we will never forget the children on the other side of the Euphrates, we will always be with them, and we will defend their just cause under all circumstances.
IT IS TESTING UNIVERSITIES: The dizzying developments in artificial intelligence technology have become testing for our universities in some areas. Accessing the source and information through artificial intelligence models has largely eliminated the effort spent in the research process. As the roads to the source become shorter, the value, abundance and return of the effort spent in the research process are unfortunately forgotten.
REVOLUTIONARY STEPS: In 24 years, we have taken revolutionary steps exclusively in the field of higher education. When we took office, we increased the number of universities from 76 to 208, the number of dormitories from 190 to 877, and our bed capacity from 182 thousand to 1 million.
Pilot application in 7 provinces
120 THOUSAND STUDENTS: We are now taking this move one step further with the vocational training model in business that we started as a pilot application in 7 provinces. In the first stage, we will start this process with 120 thousand students studying in 185 vocational associate degree programs in the provinces of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Kocaeli, Konya and Gaziantep.
Target: 2 universities in the top 100
6 UNIVERSITIES ARE IN THE TOP 500: In 2026, a total of 6 universities, 2 of which are among the top 300, entered the top 500. In the medium term, we aim for at least 2 of our universities to be among the top 100 universities in the world. At the 2026-2027 Academic Year Opening Ceremony in Beştepe, Erdoğan presented the YÖK 2026 Outstanding Achievement Awards in 20 categories under 3 titles, including doctoral thesis of the year, institutional and special awards.
'Don't start from 5-0 behind'
DON'T LET THE CHILD OF THE POOR BE DEPRIVED...: We wanted the child of the poor to not be deprived of higher education opportunities while the child of the rich is studying, not to be forced to postpone their dreams, and not to start life 5-0 behind. That's why we abolished university fees. We increased the amount of scholarships we provide at undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels. We meet the accommodation needs of our university students for only 1600 lira per month and offer them two meals free of charge.
OPPOSING EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES: From time to time, some people criticize us for opening universities in every city and opening the doors of our universities to international students. However, opposing the expansion of universities means opposing equal opportunity in education.
ACCOUNTABLE: Of course, there may be deficiencies and errors that need to be corrected in some areas. There may even be examples where some opportunities are abused.
Erdoğan received the family of 6-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab, who died after being trapped in a vehicle as a result of an Israeli attack in Gaza.
