Market Focus – Turkey

In the second in an series of exclusive articles for IDP on the Turkish market, Sirin Myles and Martyn Edwards look at student mobility trends as well as broader political and economic factors that shape the international education landscape of the country. 

Turkish students bring so much

In an increasingly competitive and financially uncertain time for the HE sector, prima facie Turkey may not appear to be the most obvious choice of market on which to focus. After all, following several years of sustained growth, student flows to the UK have slowed in recent enrolment cycles. However to take this somewhat narrow view would arguably overlook what the Turkish market has to offer from a subject and study level diversity perspective.  

Turkish students are hard working, vibrant and sociable. They make a significant contribution to student life on campus and bring a richness of cultural experiences and viewpoints. This does not end when they return home; some of the most passionate and long-standing alumni links that the UK enjoys are with our graduates in Turkey. This helps to support overall soft power as well as broader internationalisation agenda objectives, and the nurturing of collaborative teaching and research partnerships plus brand building at an individual institutional level.

Economically resilient  

Turkey is an advanced economy, with services accounting for close to two-thirds (64%) of its GDP[1]. Structural economic reforms initiated as a response to the 2001 economic crisis have been credited with ushering in a period of robust growth rates, although these have slackened somewhat in recent years, owing to weakening demand from Turkey’s primary European export partners, elevated interest rates, political unrest due to the controversial Presidential Referendum, and spill over effects from nearby conflicts. The UK currently ranks as Turkey’s second largest export market, with a market share of 7% of the total[2].  Turkey has a relatively young population with a median age of 30.5 years and just over 40% of the population under the age of 25 years. Youth unemployment (those aged 15-24) is relatively high, at 24.8% compared to the world average of 13.1%. There is a need for skilled graduates to drive the economy in the long term and diversify revenue streams.[3]   According to Seval Sir, IDP Country Manager for Turkey & Eastern Europe, “Engineering and Project Management are two areas that will require a greater number of graduates to help move the economy and infrastructure projects forward. We are also seeing more interest for Law, Design and Architecture.”  

Student flows

The bulk of government finances for outward mobility is invested into postgraduate research (PGR) students, the majority of undergraduate (UG) and Masters (PGT) students to the UK are self / privately funded.  The UK is still seen to be affordable even though the Turkish currency has been losing its value against the ï¿¡ in recent months. In the medium term, a stable flow of PGR students should be expected to continue in line with Government human capital development targets. PGR students often use agency support in particular for their visa applications. 

Turkey as an education hub

Nearly 100 new universities have been established since 2006 alone. Turkey has been investing heavily in its knowledge economy with a sizeable dedicated budget for study abroad outbound scholarships to increase internationally trained academic staff capacity and increase the standing as well as sheer number of universities. 

This enhanced provision at local universities has been planned to allow an increased number of local students to go to university and support Turkey’s ambition to become a strong regional international education hub. Turkey had been aiming to expand its population of inbound international students to 200,000 from the current level of 50,000 students with scholarships to attract international talent.  

The number of international students studying in Turkey has been growing steadily over the last decade. The top five sending countries are from the Central Asian and Middle Eastern regions.   The Turkish Government’s sizeable scholarship budget for international students and dedicated efforts to market Turkey as a study destination by various agencies and Turkish universities appear to be having a positive impact.

International students enrolled at tertiary level in Turkey 

Source: UNESCO

 â€œAs the full-time international students come from countries that may themselves have safety concerns, coming to Turkey is considered as the safer option. So these students are not deterred by any safety concerns in Turkey”. Member of staff at a private University in Istanbul

UK universities with joint or dual programmes in Turkey could benefit from Turkey’s appeal to some of these regions where the UK historically may not be so proactive and / or restricted in their recruitment activities such as Iran and Iraq.  There may also of course be scope for UK institutions to attract these third country nationals through their traditional marketing and recruitment channels in Turkey.      

Where East Meets West

Regional conflicts continue to place a strain on Turkey’s economy and an already tense political climate. Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees (3,000,000). With support of external funds and local resources, Turkey has been planning and accommodating for the educational needs of 500,000 Syrians.

Following on from the failed coup attempt in the summer of 2016, the study abroad scholarships were temporarily frozen, a number of universities were closed, and a number of academics were displaced. The closed universities students have had to be placed into other universities. Turkey is due to have a referendum on April 16th 2017 that seeks to change Turkey’s parliamentary system to a presidential system. This new system will extend the President’s, the head of state’s powers where the President will not only be head of state but will also be head of government. The relationships between Turkey and the EU is also going through some testing times since the Netherlands recently barred Turkish ministers from campaigning among Turkish expatriates for a referendum which coincided before a very intensified Dutch election.

This instability, although unfortunate for those affected, could be an opportunity for institutions in the UK, as students turn their attention overseas. At undergraduate level in particular affluent parents, unsure of the longer-term implications of the Referendum, may look more seriously at sending their children abroad at an earlier age. These families would have typically sent their children to study abroad if and when their children had not entered well-ranked universities in Turkey, given the completion for seats. Yet now, study abroad option for those able parents and their children is becoming a first choice rather than an insurance choice. 

“I am worried about safety and I would rather my son studies abroad and manages to just focus on his education”. Mother of a potential Turkish UG student destined for the UK or Canada 

According to Seval Sir, “The referendum result will come into effect from 2019 but in reality we are already seeing preparations being made. The result was very close meaning that almost half of the country did not agree and this, plus further political uncertainty, is likely to mean that more students will want to study abroad, so an opportunity for the UK.”      

2017 HESA data saw an increase of +30% in new UG student numbers from Turkey to Russell Group institutions between 2014/15 and 2015/16. The latest UCAS figures also show growth for Turkish applications to the UK: 

January Deadline Analysis: deadline Sunday 15 January 2017

As well as an increase in applications, a number of college counsellors observe that conversion from applications to enrolment for study abroad students has significantly improved.

“47 out of 49 of my students who applied to study abroad went abroad and yet in the previous years the conversion would have been only 20%”. College counsellor in Istanbul

Competition for the UK

According to the latest Institute of International Education (IIE) data, Turkey is the 13th top sending countries for tertiary students to the USA.

After the US, Germany is the second biggest receiving country of Turkish students with 5,440 enrolments[4]. This is perhaps unsurprising given the sizeable Turkish diaspora in Germany. The impact of the European accession programme, coupled with greater familiarity with Europe, lower tuition fees and success in the global rankings, has seen Turkish students become increasingly attracted to continental European instructions. After Germany, other popular destinations are Austria, France and Italy with combined tertiary enrolments from Turkey of around 5,000[5].

Some practical tips

• Continue to closely observe what is happening in the market. Talk to your agents, local partners and also your alumni and current students to keep abreast of the latest developments but also to maintain sustainable and long lasting relationships.  Trust and personal connections are very important in Turkey. 
• Parents play a highly influential role in undergraduate students’ decision making process, look after the parents and think about engaging with them with tailored country focused materials (this could even be translated) and certainly with support from your local agents. When delivering pre-departure briefings invite Turkish alumni for authentic Q&A support. 
• Do consider offering merit-based scholarships and especially partial scholarships to increase chances of conversion, these could be strategic awards targeted at particular high quality schools / colleges / universities. 
• Despite there being several well established multi destination fairs taking place each year in Turkey, the UK still enjoys something of an advantage when compared to the other major English language speaking study destinations because of our relative close proximity to Turkey and established Turkish communities in London. Traditionally UK university representatives have travelled more regularly to Turkey than those institutions from other destination countries (although this is slowly changing). We need to continue this trend and to build on this momentum. UNESCO data for example shows that Canada and Australia currently attract 777 and 411 Turkish students at tertiary level respectively, so much lower than the UK. 
• The UK must not be seen to be a “fair weather friend”. In fact, a well-known Turkish proverb says that “a friend who is with you during adverse times, is a true friend” and your potential students and parents will appreciate your support.
• According to the latest FCO travel advice, British nationals made over 1.7 million visits to Turkey in 2016. It is generally safe to travel to Turkey, but visitors should take additional safety precautions, which in the cade of UK university staff would include competing your standard institutional risk assessment procedure.   The IDP Turkey team are always happy to help provide logistical support and advice to our partner institutions.
• As with many emerging markets, Turkey has seen huge growth in the use of digital media and Turkish students are becoming increasingly tech savvy. According to Seval Sir “Whilst face to face counselling is still important, we are also using a range of different platforms in order to engage with students that include Skype, Zoom, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.”

[1] CIA World Factbook 2017

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] UNESCO https://uis.unesco.org/en/uis-student-flow

[5] Ibid. 

About the authors:

Sirin Myles is CEO of SMyles Consultancy and Coaching, providing specialist independent  solutions to client institutions. Prior to this Sirin has worked at the British Council and the University of Southampton, more recently she was Director of the International Office at the University of Reading, a position she held for more than eight years. 

Martyn Edwards is Head of Marketing and Business Development for IDP, UK & US. Prior to joining IDP, Martyn has worked for the British Council and held senior international recruitment roles at The University of Nottingham and Loughborough University.

This article was originally published exclusively for IDP clients on the IDP Hub.

About IDP: IDP was originally established in 1969 as a nonprofit organisation. Today with a global network of over 90 offices in more than 30 countries we are the world’s leading student placement organisation. IDP is a proud co-owner of IELTS, the world’s most popular English test for higher education and global migration, which was launched in 1989. In 2015 our company was successfully listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).