Turkey’s Advancement in Education, Science and Technology I
Dr.Syed Mehboob
No country can progress, develop, and prosper unless it keeps providing quality education to its youth and promotion of science and technology in its top priorities. Those countries are considered fortunate which have visionary, dedicated and committed leadership who give top priority to international compatible and high quality education in its policies and lift its nation towards the new sky and help it to have highly dignified and respectable place in the communities of the world. Brother Islamic country Turkiye is one of them.
Education is the matter of nation’s pride and soul in Turkish policy. Science and Technology in Turkey is centrally planned by TUBITAK and in responsibility of universities and research institutes. Research and Development is given top priority by Turkish government and it has shown a significant jump in recent years. Turkey was ranked 41st in the global activities in 2021 and has increased in ranking considerably in since 2011, where it was ranked 65th. Tertiary enrolment has grown rapidly to accommodate and no fewer than 30 universities were funded between 2016 and 2019, 20 of which are public institutions. By 2018 gross enrolment ratio was 109.5%, and the number of doctoral students has risen by 22% to 95,100 since 2015. There are around 820 higher education institutions including universities with a total students’ enrolment 1 million. Many universities in Turkiye are providing education and facilities as par with International standards, the technical universities are often compared with universities in the United States of America and are regularly visited by the US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and their engineering programmes deemed substantially equivalent to comparable programmes in USA.
Turkish Universities actively participate the Socrates- Erasmus programme of the European Union Commission aiming to increase students and academician mobility within the EU. The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye (TUBITAK) coordinates basic and applied research and development, acting on proposed policies by the Turkish Academy of Science ( TUBA) . There are more than sixty research institutes and organizations. Turkiye’s Research and Development strength include agriculture, forestry, health, biotechnology, nuclear technologies, minerals, materials, IT and defence.
Keeping Education, Science and technology on top of its priority has paid back to Turkiye and its economic progress, growth of exports and improvement in GDP and per capita is astonishing.
MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS
2002 2021 Change Rate (%)
GDP (Billion USD) 240 795 231
GDP Per Capita 3.617 9.406 160
GDP PPP (Billion USD) 729 2.873 294
GDP PPP Per Capita 10.998 33.963 209
Foreign Trade (Billion USD) 87.60 496,7 467
Export (Billion USD) 36,05 225,3 524,9
Import (Billion USD) 51,55 271,4 426,4
Industrial Production (Billion USD) 59,08 222,6 276,27
Total employment (million people) 20.58 29.58 44,1
Ease of Doing Business Ranking 93. 33.
Foreign Direct Investment Stock (Billion USD) 18,82 221,57 1.077
Number of Companies with International Capital 5.600 73.675 1.215,6
Total Public Expenditure 80,95 222,78 175,2
Central Bank Exchange Reserve 21,7 116,5 436,8
Ratio of Public Debt to National Income 65,4 33,7
Source: IMF, United Nations, Credit Suisse and World Bank
It shows that its GDP grew 231% from 2002 to 2021 , GDP per capita increased for the same period to 160% , Foreign trade 467%, Exports 5,249%, Import 4,264%, Industrial Production 27,627 %, employment 441%, FDI 1,077% , No of companies with international capital increased from 5,600 in 2002 to 73, 675 which is 12, 156% increased during this period.
Turkish industry, which has managed to increase its production value, productivity and employment in the last two decades, has reached a new threshold. Turkey's manufacturing industry, which has increased its foreign trade in the industry six times in the last twenty years, is developing its power with a production value of 35 thousand dollars per person employed, Turkish industry has great potential in the era of advanced technology. The future projections of World Bank, the IMF and PwC also reveal the current potential. Increasing the industrial production value of 15 thousand dollars in 2002 to over 35 thousand dollars in 2021, Turkey is expected to exceed 90 thousand dollars in 2050. Turkey, which is expected to constitute 2.41 percent of the world's industry in 2050, is expected to be the seventh largest industrial country.
Industrial Production ( Million dollars)
Year Industrial production million dollars
2002 59,08
2020 20,165
2021 22,267
2022 23,640
2025 (p) 33,332
2030( P) 47,757
2050 (p) 11,4476
Organized Industrial Zones ( OIZs) are established which play very important and vital role in Tutkiye’s GDP growth and economic development. It enhanced country’s economic and internationally competitive structure, to provide technology transfer, to increase production and employment , to accelerate foreign capital inflows and to create suitable industrial areas for large-scale investments. The OIZ application, in which lands with infrastructure is created for industry, was started in Bursa for the first time in Turkiye, the number of OIZs that entered in services between 1962 and 2002 was 70 only and the it rapidly got momentum and number of OIZs that were active in 2021 was 257. As of 2021, there are 28 OIZs planned to be built in 2021 and 27 that have been expropriated OIZs approved by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and 42 OIZs with infrastructure, while 249 of 257 OIZs operating in 2021 are approved by Ministry of Industry and Technology , 8 are TDIOSB approved by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. .
2002 2021
Number of OIZs 193 353
The number of factories 14.000 67.000
The number of employees 415.000 2.290.000
Source: İstatistikler | T.C. Sanayi ve Teknoloji Bakanlığı
Note: We are highly thankful to Turkish Consulate in Karachi and consul General of bother country H.E Cemal Sangu who provided us valuable information which has been included in this article.