Turkey needs to do more to help Syrian academics

The war in Syria has led to the displacement of masses of Syrians. As the current statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicate, the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has risen to over 3.5 million, 52% of whom are adults between the ages of 18 and 59.

There is no reliable data about the previous working status of this group before they immigrated to Turkey. Nevertheless, it is clear that many Syrian academics have had to flee from Syria since 2011, when opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime swept across the country.

For the last three years, the Council of Higher Education, the government body which coordinates universities in Turkey, has been publishing figures on the number of Syrian academics employed at universities in Turkey. While the number was 292 in 2016, it reached 334 in 2017 and currently stands at 348. Of the 348, some 297 are men and 51 are women. A total of 130 of these hold a PhD and the 218 academics without a PhD are employed in a teaching capacity.

There is no doubt that the Turkish authorities have made an effort to help Syrian academics in Turkey. Several workshops have been held to discuss how Syrian academics' lives in Turkey could be improved and how they could be employed at universities in Turkey.

These efforts have resulted in the Council of Higher Education taking the significant step of setting up an online platform, the Database for International Academics (YABSIS), in 2016. This aims to make the application process for academic positions easier for international academics – especially Syrians.

On the one hand, the ongoing rise in the number of Syrian academics employed at universities in Turkey suggests that these efforts have worked to some extent. On the other hand, the small size of the increase implies that there are a number of Syrian academics in Turkey who are still seeking employment at a university and-or who have already moved to a third country.

Small numbers

YABSIS was opened to online access on 11 April 2016. Due to the involvement of the Council of Higher Education, the number of applicants was more than expected. In the first two days, more than 5,000 international academics applied for an academic job in Turkey, almost 1,200 of whom were Syrian.

The most recent number of applicants was shared in an internationalisation strategy paper published on 30 June 2017, which said that the total number of Syrian academics applying had reached 3,222. Considering the fact that the current number of Syrian academics employed at Turkish universities is 348, it is clear that just one in 10 applicants has managed to find an academic position at a university in Turkey.

What springs to mind at this point is that it seems as if the policy of employing Syrian academics at universities in Turkey is not being implemented effectively enough. A recent report, Elite Dialogue, highlights two issues.

First of all, Turkey has been too slow in employing more Syrian academics at its universities. The report notes problems such as bureaucracy, language challenges and non-recognition of previous academic qualifications as a barrier to the employment of more Syrians at universities in Turkey.

Second, the 'fortunate' group of Syrian academics who are currently employed at universities in Turkey do not seem to be very pleased with their working conditions. Low salaries, being expected to teach Arabic rather than doing research and long waiting times for contract renewals are among the common challenges faced by this group.

Long term strategy

It is high time that Turkey tackled some of the barriers to hiring Syrian brain power in its universities and improved the working conditions of those Syrians already employed in Turkish universities.

There is an urgent need for a strategy paper on the employment of Syrian academics in Turkish universities. The paper needs to scope the expertise of Syrian academics in Turkey and the university administrators should be asked to hire a specific number of academics.

Committees for hiring Syrian academics at every university should start working to determine the research opportunities at their universities for Syrian academics. A government website in both Arabic and Turkish should be set up to advertise job opportunities for Syrian academics at universities in Turkey so that Syrian academics have the information they need about the employment process.

Lastly, as statistics from the Council of Higher Education indicate, there are currently 1,492 masters and 404 Syrian doctoral students studying at universities in Turkey. Thinking in the long term, a roadmap should be created to ensure that they can remain and find jobs in Turkey after they obtain their graduate degrees.

Hakan Ergin holds a PhD from Bogazici University, Turkey. His research interests include internationalisation of higher education, migration, adult education, the right to education and distance learning. He works as a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College Center for International Higher Education, United States. Email: hakan.ergin1@yahoo.com