Given the demographics of Turkey (an estimated 20 million people aged six to 20 in 2005), and restricted government spending on education (EUR 7 billion for 2004), demand for education outstrips supply. Turkish students are looking for both higher and further education opportunities that lead to internationally-recognised certificates / diplomas and consequently greater employment mobility.
English language skills are very important for employment, and the level achieved in public high schools and universities is not always adequate. For these reasons, attending university, (or a language course), in an English-speaking country is seen to be a major advantage in the employment market.
Despite the economic crisis in recent years, Turkey is a growing economy with increasingly improved relations with Europe and the USA. The youthful population and the importance placed on education, with parents willing to make sacrifices for their children's education, combine to make Turkey a significant education market.
Eight years primary education is compulsory, followed by three years secondary education. For private high schools, and some public schools, the medium of teaching is partly English. With effect from 2004, secondary education is being extended by one year to four years.
The number of students taking the nationwide entrance examination for higher education reached almost 1.8 million in 2004, of whom only about 15 per cent are successful. Furthermore, polls indicate that only one per cent of university applicants is satisfied with the programme they are allocated.
Agents are important in co-ordinating relationships between overseas education institutions, students and students' parents. Due to lack of knowledge of overseas education systems, as well as limited language skills, people usually choose to use an agent. Some agents belong to the Association of International Educational Counsellors (UED), founded in May 2001 by 16 agencies. There are many agents operating throughout Turkey who are not members of UED, which is primarily Istanbul-based, and these may be equally reputable. It is customary for agents to represent institutions from a number of competitor countries.
Turkey has had strong political ties with the USA since the 1950s and many schools and universities have adopted the USA system, making the USA the market leader and first choice for study abroad. Canada and Australia are known as better alternatives to the USA and UK for less well-qualified students, and both have been pursuing extensive marketing activities through agents, but still have low market share.
The UK is the preferred option for ELT, and almost 60 per cent of the Turkish students studying in the UK are ELT students. There is a need for greater in-country provision at both higher and further education levels; therefore there are opportunities to establish partnerships between UK educational institutions and those in Turkey. This could especially have market potential for further education. Current legislation in Turkey does not recognise distance learning programmes, and dialogue with YÖK on this issue is needed.
Popular subject areas for higher and further education are Business / Management, Economics, Finance, Law, IT, and Art & Design.
There is mounting pressure to improve provision of vocational education and training in Turkey; with their expertise in skills-related education, UK institutions and agencies are well-placed to support the reform and development of an effective and responsive VET system in Turkey.
British Council Turkey has three offices, in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, which have needed to respond to security considerations by making changes to the traditional balance between face-to-face and virtual services.
These changes have been reflected in our strategy, which has seen the positioning of the Education UK team exclusively in our Istanbul office. Instead of offering traditional counseling and placement services, as part of our innovative approach we have focused our efforts on capacity-building the local educational agents to ensure that they have necessary knowledge and skills to market the UK better. In this way, we feel we are able to multiply our influence right through the sector and across Turkey. However, we still conduct face-to-face activities during school visits and educational fairs, and provide students with virtual support via a high quality website featuring the interactive counseling service (Live Chat).
Of course, we still offer the full range of support services to our UK partners, especially in the area of market intelligence and on-going information provision.
Since 2003, we have adopted the policy of supporting the most prominent locally organised fairs with technical advice and targeted marketing, for example the IEFT Fair in April 2005 and the A2 Fair in November 2005. For November 2006, we are exploring the possibility of holding a British Festival with the main focus being UK Education.
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