Controversy on campus as Turkey Prez picks rectors
The direct appointment of university rectors by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since July’s failed coup has stirred up tensions on campus and prompted claims of political interference in the education sector.
The state-run Bosphorus University in Istanbul is one of the most prestigious in the country. With its green lawns reminiscent of the Ivy League or Oxbridge, it is the traditional starting point for the Turkish elite.
But beneath the gilded surface, tensions are simmering after Mr Erdogan this month appointed Professor Mehmed Ozkan in place of the popular Gulay Barbarosoglu as the university rector.
He made the appointment under a measure allowed by the state of emergency which was imposed by the government following the failed bid by a rogue army faction to oust him.
Elections for rectors in Turkey’s 181 universities — 111 of them state-run — were suspended after the July 15 coup, with Mr Erdogan picking winners from a pool of candidates selected by the education authority, called the YOK.
If Mr Erdogan doesn’t pick one of the candidates proposed by YOK within a month, he can choose the rector directly.
Outgoing rector Mr Barbarosoglu won 86 per cent of the vote among Bosphorus University academics in the July 12 election, held just three days before the coup.
Mr Ozkan, an academic at the university’s biomedical engineering department and brother of a ruling party MP, did not run in the race. After Mr Ozkan’s appointment, Ms Barbarosoglu said she was stepping down from her academic career.
“I bid farewell to our university where I have contributed for over 40 years at various levels, as student, academic and administrator, and finalise my academic career.”