BY MEHMET Y. YILMAZ
HURRIYET- Newspapers this week reported on what opening a new university in Turkey amounts to.
Ardahan University, among 23 universities recently founded, has no buildings, no students, and no faculty!
The rector, his deputy and the engineering faculty dean spend their nights in a guest house of a public institution concerned with rural affairs, and do their work in a single room belonging to the institution!
Ardahan has no building suitable for a university, and when they will get one is unknown. One has been rumored for about three years.
This is another typical example showing that a university can't be founded just by passing a law in Parliament!
A university means more than a building, three deans, and some students!
Unfortunately, many universities recently opened around the country for political reasons are in similar shape.
Such shortages of scholars and poor physical conditions may be enough to turn a university into a high school.
Here are some of our questions: Who will teach the students? Is the faculty qualified? Will the students have libraries? Will the students be offered extracurricular activities in line with their personal abilities and interests? Is the environment around the university good enough to contribute to its vision?
Such sham universities have no good answers for these questions.
They serve no purpose besides cranking out new university graduates who can then join the ranks of the unemployed!