Market environment

Turkey is the world's 16th and Europe’s 6th largest economy. Turkish GDP grew by 8.9% in 2010, making the country the fastest growing economy of Europe.

The Economist has recently coined the term ‘CIVETS’ (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa), to describe six emerging, often overlooked, markets that are becoming ever-more attractive to investors. Turkey was commended for its young and growing population, diversified economy and low debt levels. It was noted for having the highest GDP per capita out of the six countries in the block.

According to the demographics of Turkey by Turkish Statistics Agency, around 19 million people aged 5 to 20 in 2010. In the last 5 year the budget allocated for Ministry of National Education (MoNE) has been in increasing trend each year by around 6%. As a result of this trend, MoNE has become one of highest priority ministries in the government; however, the demand in education continues to drastically outweigh supply despite rapid developments taking place at all levels of education in Turkey.

In 2010, consumer expenditure on education that overtook government spending in 2004, continued to reflect stronger growth. This reflects the ambition of the growing middle classes in Turkey as the economy strengthens and parents to pay for private education.

As the country aims for entry into the EU, it will need to produce and retain highly-skilled graduates, which suggests that the external provision of tertiary education will grow in importance over the forecast period.

Higher Education in Turkey has seen a sharp growth in the last decade, which is set to continue. As the number of universities reached 173 in the last decade, it brought along all the opportunities as well as challenges to be achieved. Furthermore, from the political perspective, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the General Elections in 2011 for the third term which gives the indication of sustaining the investment in education reforms.

Despite those efforts universities in Turkey still can not satisfy the demand for tertiary education which leads to growth in the number of students studying abroad. Furthermore, it is recognized that the level of English teaching in Turkey remains to be insufficient; unless, it is delivered at well- established primary and secondary schools at early ages or universities.

Market characteristicsMarket characteristics

Primary education in Turkey is compulsory for male and female students, lasts 8 years and is free in state schools. The age of compulsory education encloses children of age 6 - 14. This age starts in September of the year that the child completes age 5 and ends by the end of academic year when the child completes age 14 and enters age 15. (Eurydice: organisation of Turkish education system in Turkey 2009/10) Private schools, which are becoming increasingly popular, are also supervised by the state.

Secondary education level in the Turkish Education System encloses all general, vocational and technical education institutions offering minimum four-year education based on the primary education. The age category for secondary education encloses ages 14 - 17. (Eurydice: organisation of Turkish education system in Turkey 2009/10)Those vocational and technical high schools’ focus may vary from electronics to chemistry and mechanics to construction, furthermore there are evening high schools that usually operate in the same school buildings. There is also a slight regional variation – Anatolian high schools provide more lessons in a selected foreign language (English, German or French) and may have more provision for religious studies.

The bulk of secondary education is a general high school, and an estimated 95% of students attend a state-funded one. The aim of most of these schools is to prepare students for the two-stage university entrance exams. Around 1.8 million students sit these exams every year to compete for around 500 thousand places, around half of which are 2-year associate degree programmes.  

Effectively, the entrance exams act as a means of restricting access to education, with less than one in four applicants gaining access to university places.

Abroad Education Advisors play a key role in co-ordinating relationships between overseas education institutions, students and students' parents. Due to the various reasons such as;

• to ease the administration process for enrolment
• lack of knowledge of overseas education systems
• limited language skills to follow the procedures

While Educational Agents have a strong presence in country; College Counsellors working for major high schools also play a key role for counselling and placement of their students. For Education Agents, it is customary 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. Germany the destination for Turkish students due to the strong economic and cultural ties between the two countries, and the fact that many potential students travelling from Turkey are able to call upon family members living in Germany to help them settle is a strong attraction. At the same time, the fee structure of German universities is far more appealing.

UK’s quality and strength in Higher Education is widely recognised in Turkey; so that, UK’s perspective is highly valued in country. As a result, there is a constant growth around 10% to 15% per year in the number of students choosing UK as their study destination. Canada and Australia are also known as alternatives to the USA and UK; however, despite pursuing extensive marketing activities through agents, still have low market share.  In the recent years, some attraction towards study options in Eastern Europe has been observed.  

Nonetheless, the UK and the USA remain attractive to Turkish students due to the many world-ranking universities in each country. Turkish students that undertake the cost of international study are typically acutely aware of the status of their preferred choices, and seek to maximise their employability by studying at the best possible universities.

Market opportunitiesMarket opportunities

The demand for ELT programmes in the UK remains as the highest with short term long term programmes. Each year around 60% of the students studying in the UK are ELT students. ELT programmes are followed by post-graduate programmes due to both UK’s well-recognised and respected quality of academic research and the duration of those programmes. There is a significant increase in number of students each year choosing UK for their under graduate degrees. Most of those students need the path-way courses (foundation year) due to the differences between Turkish and British Education Systems unless they come from major high schools from Turkey some of which offer international curriculum as well as Turkish such as IB, etc.

Furthermore, in terms of partnership and collaboration opportunities, Higher Education Council initiates to forge international academic links. Individual Turkish universities are keen to develop effective working relationships with the UK Universities in various areas and levels of engagement Academic Research partnerships, dual/joint degrees, ELT provision partnerships, etc. University – Industry links and entrepreneurship are also areas of interest that UK Universities are well-placed to support the development. The reforms in education also suggest that the development of international campuses in major cities of Turkey.  

There is on-going development in improving the provision of vocational education and training in Turkey; with their expertise in skills-related education; UK institutions and agencies are well-recognised to support the reforms and development of a more responsive VET System in Turkey.

Most popular subjects for Higher Education are Business and Management, Economics, Finance, IT, Law and Art&Design which is becoming more and more attractive among Turkish students. For Further Education, in addition to Management and Art&Design subjects Tourism and Hospitality, Catering are attractive. Those could work quite well by establishing working relationships with local providers.

Our infrastructure and strategic education prioritiesOur infrastructure and strategic education priorities

British Council Turkey has two non-public offices, based in Istanbul and Ankara.

Education Projects Team covering Education UK and Higher Education services are exclusively available in our Istanbul office with access to all country.

Full range of support services cover;

Supporting individual UK Institutions with their recruitment focused promotional activities in Turkey i.e. school visits (currently available in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir), web ads and electronic mailings to promote individual institution seminars in country, etc.   

Capacity building activities for local abroad education advisors to ensure that they have necessary knowledge and skills to market the UK better. i.e. UK Education Advisor’s Online Training, Visa briefings organised jointly with UKBA country representatives, UCAS Seminars, etc.

Consultancy work to establish and sustain strong working relationships between Turkish and UK education providers by partnerships and collaborations in priority areas

Our work in country also include to contribute Turkey’s Education Reforms by bringing in UK expertise and experience for capacity building with key policy makers; Ministry of National Education (MEB), Higher Educational Council (YÖK)

Continually, we offer market intelligence on educational developments and educational opportunities available in Turkey through regular newsletters, in-country and UK briefings that are exclusively available for Education UK Turkey Partnership Members. We also welcome all UK institutions at our office individually for an overview of Turkey Market.  

Please note that British Council Turkey does not organise fairs/exhibitions in Turkey; however, there are student recruitment fairs/exhibitions that UK education providers prominently benefit to meet with prospective students. British Council Education UK and Education Ps Team may organise events around those fair/exhibition periods for the UK Institutions. The fairs/exhibitions may be attended by British Council Examinations Team to promote IELTS and other examination services available for those prospective students in Turkey.

The calendar of the fairs/exhibitions in the beginning of each year (around December/January) is communicated among partnership members; otherwise, available upon request.