Waqf and higher education: contemporary experiences of Waqf university models in Turkey

• Main Author: Kayadibi, Saim
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: BP173.75 Islam and economics; H Social Sciences (General)
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/59949/1/Leadership%20AKEPT%2015-16%20August%202017.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/59949/8/59949_tentative.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/59949/

Higher Education in Turkey, before the Higher Education Reform in 1981, was consisted of five different institutions which are universities; Academies attached to the Ministry of Education; with two-years vocational High Schools which most of them are affiliated to the Ministry of Education and some of them to the other Ministries. The Higher Education Council (YÖK) also has a "Waqf Higher Education Institutions Coordination Unit" in relations with Waqf universities which executes their establishment process, actions related to demand changes on establishment commitments. For the sake of dissemination of scientific freedom, besides 118 public universities 71 new waqf universities were established since 2004 which offered the fastest growing waqf university opportunities in Turkish history and therefore it reached to 193 by 2014. In terms of source of fund and organizational goals, the waqf universities in Turkey can be considered in four types: Firstly, waqf universities established by companies for the sake of profit or commercial purposes such as Koç and Sabanci which accept students with high fees; Secondly, universities established by semi-government agencies like Diyanet Foundation such as Istanbul 29 May, Fatih Sultan Mehmet; Thirdly, semi-government agencies universities established by the chamber of commerce such as Konya Karatay, Istanbul Trade, and TOBB universities; Lastly, pure private waqf universities established by social waqfs like Dissemination of Knowledge Society (Ïlim Yayma Vakfi) whose Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University (IZU) and Foundation for Science and Arts (Bilim ve Sanat Vakfi) whose Sehir University. This paper, therefore, tries to elaborate the four types of Waqf University models as well as their contemporary experiences in Turkey.