More and more students who graduate from prestigious high schools in Turkey prefer to attend university abroad and stay there, joining a large number of well-educated people who move overseas for a better future, according to a report by the Gazete Oksijen news website.
A large number of graduates of such well-respected schools as the İstanbul High School, Galatasaray High School and the German High School, which offer their students a bilingual education, chose to move abroad for university this year due to fears of unemployment and concerns about a poor university education in Turkey, in addition to the reasonable fees.
According to Gazete Oksijen, 43 out of 121 Galatasaray High School students, 122 out of 124 German High School graduates, 133 out of 166 Istanbul High School graduates and 74 out of 75 Austrian High School students chose to study abroad this year.
Among those who opted for overseas study are 62 percent of Robert College graduates and 35 percent of Galatasaray graduates. At Galatasaray, this rate was 3.3 percent in 2020.
Professor Reşat Dabak, the principal of Galatasaray High School, said students believe they will receive a better education abroad and that their desire for freedom also plays a role in their decision-making.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which has been ruling Turkey as a single-party government since 2002, is accused by its critics of eliminating academic freedom in the country and failing to provide scientists with the means to carry out their work.
After a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 followed by a systematic attack on academic freedom through the dismissal of professors from the country’s most prestigious universities and the cancellation of their passports as well as the shutting down of civil society and nongovernmental organizations, Turkish citizens began to feel the seriousness of the political pressure.
The brain drain has become a hot topic in Turkey in recent years, as political pressure has led the brightest minds of the country to leave in search of a better life.
The latest studies on Turkey’s ongoing brain drain find that the rise of authoritarianism, religious nationalism, financial difficulties and the government’s strict control over universities are the main inducements for emigration.
According to the results of a survey conducted by Turkish pollster Metropoll last year, 58.4 percent of Turks aged 18-34 would like to live or study abroad.
