Republic of turkey

3. TOOLS AND APPROACHES WHICH CAN BE USED FOR DESIGNING THE STRATEGY

The strategy over which it is being worked considers that YÖK (Council of Higher Education) which consists the second stage of the higher education system undertakes more directing and supervising functions instead of directly decision making duties and that the autonomy forming the relevant stage has to be extended.

Before fixing the elements of the strategy, it will be useful to make some determinations about the fact that what kinds of tools could be used for directing a higher education system which is much more decentralized according to the past. Because of this, the tools and approaches which can be used could be summarized under some headings.

The first type of tools is institutional restructurings. This tool will be the one which will be used the most. As the system will be decentralized, these institutional restructurings will ensure that the applications of the units of which the freedoms are extended and developed according to the objectives. When one says institutional arrangements, then generally laws, regulations or all of the directives can be understood.

The institutional restructurings determine the fields of competency and responsibility and what kind of behaviours are being regarded as lawful for the sections or behavioural units taking place in the system. Without doubt, by changing the institutional regulators, the applications of the principle actors of the system will be affected to a certain extent. Certain things which were within the field of execution in the past will not be in that field anymore, or some things which they were not able to do will now be possible to be done.

This institutional restructuring leaves in a decentralized system where the actors of such a great field of judgment that this might not be sufficient in order to ensure the development of the system performance in the desired direction. In order to fill this gap, the need for some special institutional restructurings might arise. It might be suitable to call these economic desire makings based on performance criteria. In this case, there exists a directing based on incitement. Whereas in a decentralized system a broader competency is ensured with institutional restructurings, by adding the use of economic desire makings based on performance criteria, a very strong directing is being achieved.

The basic motivation of an institution offering public service in the field of higher education comes from the respect it has assured in the public sphere and this pushes them into a competition in the public. The existence of such competitions arranged by performance criteria ensures the development of the performance of the system while it is not only directed towards a certain direction.

In a system established by units with a great autonomy and decentralization which is trying to be directed in such a way, in order that no degeneration might appear and the arranged competition may be done under fair conditions, it is necessary that the transparency is assured and the accountability order is established. If in this statement, which is being repeated very often, the transparency as well as the accountability order is not specified and if the order is not institutionalized in a serious manner, this precondition set for the successful functioning of the system will not be realized and will remain in words. And if this precondition is not realized, a good management cannot be realized in a decentralized system with basic institutions whose autonomy has increased and regional autocrats will be created.

Transparency itself has not got such a great importance; it only becomes a value if the content of the accountability is being determined. The accountability order within a higher education system must be established by taking three different dimensions into consideration. These dimensions are as follows:

1. 
   accountability for the use of public funds;
   
2. 
   evaluation of the Education and Research Performance;
   
3. 
   and evaluation of the internal university administration and living culture.
   

In all three fields it must be clarified according to which criterions and institutional mechanisms accountability and evaluation will be assessed and also the positive and negative sanctions regarding this subject must be determined.

The determination of what the scope of accountability is, will also clarify in which subjects and which mechanisms transparency will be assured. The main starting point for the establishment of this shall be the right of humans to get information. This starting point is clarifying the need to ensure transparency for a broad environment of collocutors. The subject which must be emphasized here is the necessity that transparency must be ensured both externally and internally.

CHAPTER II

HIGHER EDUCATION STRATEGY FOR TURKEY

1. THE HIGHER EDUCATION VISION FOR TURKEY

How can the higher education vision for Turkey be developed? Nowadays, there are three main functions which are expected from higher education. These are education, knowledge production (research) and institutional service functions. If a higher education vision is wanted to be developed, in reality individual visions have to be developed for these three functions. These have been tried to be developed one after another by starting with education.

Education Vision

It is not possible to take on the higher education vision of Turkey separately from the general education vision of Turkey. Therefore, it would be right to develop the higher education vision within a two step approach. Because of this, firstly what the education vision of Turkey could be in general is being taken on and afterwards it is tried to clarify the position of higher education within this vision.

In a period where the world is globalized while passing towards information society, the education vision of Turkey must be in such a way that it makes the children and young people of the country successful within the conditions of the new period. This vision might be summarized as follows.

Education will be given by ensuring that everybody can reach it fully and with equal opportunities, that individuals are equipped with potentials which will enrich the realization of their life projects, that they are directed to be active citizens who do not abstain to take initiatives and responsibility and who have the capability of critical thinking and who are sensitive in terms of human rights and democracy and towards environmental, cultural and aesthetic values.

This vision firstly determines the scope of the mass towards which the education is directed and takes everyone within its scope. Because according Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights everyone has the right to education. Therefore, the elementary education will be compulsory and free of charge.

From the elementary education it is being strongly expected that the child gains the necessary competencies to be a citizen, but it is not expected that the child is given the necessary profession to earn his/her living. The responsibility of the state regarding the necessary vocational training and higher education so that an individual can earn his/her living is different from the responsibility the state has undertaken during the elementary education. The state is kept responsible for the existence of such academic services and also for the assurance of equal opportunities for those having the necessary qualifications to reach these services.

The second matter which is being focused by the educational vision clarifies the point of view towards education. Education is regarded as an activity aimed at developing potentials providing the development of life projects. The basis of this approach is Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which determines the objectives of education as well as the approach to raise an individual who can realize himself/herself independently and to create a peaceful society. The individual who has been granted the freedom to realize himself/herself will be given the capacities during the education which he/she can use for the realization of his/her project.

What the capacities are which must be created within this vision is unclear. The number of capacities to be created is rising nearly every year with the developments in the world. Therefore, the compulsory years for education which the children have to be given also rise continuously. A wide range of competencies which a student has to gain during his/her educational life is being established. This comprises, besides basic competencies like reading and writing and basic mathematical functions as well as science, basic expertise in the use of technology, competencies in the use of information and communication technologies and expertise in expression.

Two important competencies which do not take place in this broad range must also be mentioned. The first one is the knowing a foreign language. Knowing a foreign language almost became a precondition in order to be successful in the future world.

The second one is the development of the capability of the student to learn on his/her own. In order to be a successful individual in the information society, it is no more sufficient to only have a certain level of professional and technical knowledge. This individual is also expected to reach the knowledge, process the knowledge and have the capacity to renew and extent his/her knowledge continuously in conformity with his/her job. Such a student can only be trained by a constructivist approach and not by a behavioural educational approach.

In a world which passed towards an information society, the success of the individuals depends mainly on the fact that if they are equipped with these competencies or not. But the expectation from this student is not only that he/she possesses a certain group of competencies. It is also expected that he/she acquires certain tendencies and sensitivity as a member of the society or as a citizen. This individual is expected to be raised as an active citizen, who does not abstain to take initiatives and responsibility and who respects human rights and freedoms as well as environmental and cultural values. And this will necessitate that he/she has the sensitivity to develop ethic and aesthetic judgments.

In order that Turkey transforms its population within the information society to a valid capital will only be able if it possesses such an educational vision. After this general vision is established for education, it can be determined what kind of status the higher education vision will take within this.

In the globalized world of the information society, economy became to be dependent upon knowledge and well-informed labour force. The competition within the globalized information society has increased the need for labour force having various competencies and the capacity for life-long learning. Within this scope, the vision regarding higher education can be formulated as follows.

By gaining the quality of mass education within the framework of the general educational vision, and while following in the first steps flexible and open programmes in order to adjust to the changing conditions of the world, and in the following steps towards specialization, the higher education has to become open for life-long learning and the suitability of its quality to world standards must be ensured.

The higher education and especially university education have been elitist during the period of industrial society. This education was only given to 10% of the group. Whereas nowadays in countries which are far developed in terms of information society, education at this level is being given to 65% of the population of the epoch. There have been certain results of the education of the mass. The first one is the importance given to the decrease of the costs of the education given. The second one is that at the first stages higher education, the education was standardizes to a great extent and that it was designed in modules. Besides that these developments are economical, they also facilitate the transition between the academic fields as well as they provide the system to a great level with flexibility.

The second subject on which the higher education vision focuses is safeguarding the standardized and flexible structure of the university level, and at the further stages which are Masters and PhD level, it focuses on advanced specialization. In the society in which such a mass education is being practiced, it is tried to train everybody up to advanced levels, it can be said that this will cause efficiency losses both in the academic system and the labour force market. Within the higher education system, it must not be forgotten that another differentiation in the relationship between education and practice probably exists between universities and colleges.

Another accent of the vision is that the given higher education is at an international standard and that the validity of this is being recognized by independent international and national institutions. This accent becomes important from the point of view that it assures the quality of education as well as assuring the mobility within the globalizing world.

Production of Knowledge and Vision Regarding the Research Function

Institutions of higher education, and especially universities, are not places where only education is given, at the same time these are places where scientific research is conducted, which means places where knowledge is produced. This expectation of knowledge production from these institutions grows gradually nowadays. A higher education strategy has to have a clear vision towards how this function will be realized. Within this scope, the following vision may be recommended.

The scientific research conducted within the higher education system in Turkey must be directed towards scientific knowledge production which has an internal and external history as well as a reputation at the international level.

After discussions made in the past years about this vision, it can be said that also within TÜBA there is a certain common opinion. This formulation comprises a very complex world of objectives in itself. It provides a broad horizon for policies which Turkey can follow in matters of scientific development.

This brief suggestion emphasizes developments in three different fields. The first one emphasizes the existence of an outer (external) history of scientific fields which will be developed by knowledge production. If the scientist of a country chose their own fields of work according to the influence of the dynamics and problems of their society, than the social science of the country has an outer history. That means the developmental history of science of the country can be written parallel to the developmental history of the society. If a country’s outer history of the fields of science can be written, these activities are not estranged to the society, are developing within the society and are meaningful to the society. In other words, the conducted activities in the fields of science are located in the heart of society.

The second emphasis is being made on the presence of an inner (internal) history of the fields of science. If the scientists of a country can obtain scientific development by being influenced by their works, then this means that the scientific activities of that country have an internal history. If in a country the internal history of a scientific field can be written, it can be said that the scientists of that country have formed an epistemological community. In fact, in order to talk about the scientific performance of a country, in that country there has to exist an epistemological community. If not, it is not very meaningful to think about the total of the scientific activities they will conduct without being influenced by each other as being the scientific performance of that country. In order to talk about the scientific performance related to a country, it is more important that those ones conducting that activities form a scientific community instead of living within the borders of that country.

The third emphasis of the vision is on the level of scientific capability and that the field of science gains an international reputation. It is being expected that the world of science has an internal history, can form an epistemological community, can reach the capacity to form a leadership in different disciplines in the world of science and has an esteemed place in the world of science through international publications and attribution it receives.

It can be said that scientists in Turkey have reached this vision as a result of experiences they had in the past. The experiences Turkey had in the last 15-20 years have made it clear that the scientific vision which is trying to regard the scientific performance of a country solely as the total of the individual success of scientists and trying to evaluate it as the total of the international publications of the scientists is insufficient to show the path for policies to be followed. The complex vision reached after this experience can show the path for the establishment of more complex scientific development strategies.

Suggestion for a Vision for Higher Education for the Production of Public Service

The third expected functioning which is expected to be fulfilled by higher education systems is the production of public service. Generally, within higher education strategies, there does not exist a selection regarding defined strategies for the production of public services. It can be said that this has two reasons. The first one is the fact that a great majority of provided public services is incorporated into academic and research activities. The second reason is that these services are provided by institutions formed around higher education systems and are functioning through special regulations and the fact that their relationships with institutions of higher education that function according to public law form a grey space. Despite all these facts, it is useful to establish for institutions of higher education a vision regarding the function of the production of public services by them.

It can be said that institutions of higher education, especially universities, provide various types of public services. The public services provided or which have to be provided by universities can be classified within five groups.

The first one is the academic service. This field of service has been mentioned above within the main functioning of institutions of higher education. In addition to this, institutions of higher education have started to offer programmes aimed at different diplomas at different levels. Education offered within the framework continuous education and applications within the framework of academic activities aroused as a demand of cultural consumption are within the activities of these institutions and are offered in return to a certain fee.

The second one is especially the health service offered by university hospitals. The medical education and the medical research make it necessary to a great extent that these health services are provided.

The third one is the public services providing the development and realization of project regarding the innovations necessary for the industry and the needs of national defence. There are different reasons for the universities to produce these kinds of services. The production of one part of these services, similar to the ones of health services, has reasons resulting from education and research that means knowledge production. A second reason is that these services provided externally by the university are provided economically and that this forms a path in order to meet the research and development services of the country’s economy. Another reason might be that these services which are necessary in the fields of services requiring an advanced accumulation of knowledge became a kind of natural monopoly.

A fourth reason is especially related to universities in underdeveloped regions. These universities are expected to show a path for regional development and become an effective actor of this development. The expectation regarding the university appears to be a function of an NGO or entrepreneurship. It is expected that the university becomes a kind of regional development agency.

A fifth function can be defined as advocacy. The University is expected to defend the rights of the weak within society and participate as a partner in activities which will promote the quality of life. Similarly, it is being expected by the universities that they take part in similar defending activities regarding the protection of the country’s environmental and cultural heritage. And this can be defined as a kind of a function of an NGO.

Regarding the public services provided by the universities in such different fields, the following vision can be recommended.

It is necessary that institutions of higher education provide public services in different necessary fields in order to accomplish their duty of education and research, and in order to be useful by preserving their meaning within the society where they are established. What kind of services these institutions will produce with the society and the market in which relationship will be defined by the “ethos” fixing the borders between these institutions and the society. In order that these public services do not become a source of disharmony, the information regarding the fact that how the revenue obtained from these services will be used must be transparent internally and externally in respect of the institution, the quality of the produced services must have an internal auditing and their performance for the production of these services must be attributed clearly to their academic career.

The recommendation for a vision of this subject consists of three parts. In the first part the framework regarding the necessity of public service production as well as its scope is being defined. As a detailed discussion about what these services might be has been made beforehand, only the other parts of the vision will be mentioned here.

The second part emphasizes the existence of an ethical framework for these services produced by the university. This ethical framework forms to a certain extent the borders which differentiate the university from the market. This ethical framework comprises many subjects like the pricing / non-pricing of the services offered, starting unfair competition with the student it trained, the borders of social responsibility and the increase of the academic load of evening classes to an extent that it prevents academic actions.

The experience of Turkey shows clearly that the style of production of these services causes a considerable tension between the research and academic staff of the universities. Therefore, within the vision of public service production, there must be some principles which define how this service can be produced within the university without causing tension. And these principles form the third part of the vision. The production of public service brings money to the university. The tension within the university results from the fact that the transparency and fairness of the usage and separation of this revenue is not provided. If this is achieved, this will contribute to a more harmonious and more productive university environment.

As the education strategies focus their attention mostly on the control of the performance of the university, public services are not in their scope and the failures in these fields are not included in the evaluations. The availability of an internal control mechanism for different services which the university provides to the public will reduce the claims in this field, will develop the performance of the university and will increase its confidence. Another subject which becomes important within this scope is the issue that how much the public services production in the academic environment will be respected. It must also clarify how the work done in this field will be attributed to the career of academics.