International developments in doctoral education: The case of Türkiye

ABSTRACT

Doctoral education has been of significance in Türkiye particularly in the last 20 years due to the major expansion of higher education in the country. Between 2002 and 2022, the number of universities in the country almost tripled to reach 207, exacerbating the shortage in the number of academicians and researchers. This, along with the pressure to enhance universities’ performance in international rankings, has made the improvement of doctoral education a priority. Additionally, there have been political, economic and cultural changes in the country in recent years, and these as well as the influences of globalisation, massification, diversification, capitalism and neoliberalism have led to significant policy changes in higher education. In this article, an overview is provided of the developments in doctoral education in Türkiye in response to these changes, focusing on policies related to producing qualified academicians, enabling the diversification of universities through mission differentiation, and facilitating university–industry partnership approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• doctoral education
• raising academicians

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gokce Gokalp

Gokce Gokalp is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Sciences, Middle East Technical University. Her research interests include graduate education policies and support services in graduate education.