New affirmative action system for female academics

Turkey’s Council of Higher Education (YÖK) is preparing to launch efforts to empower women academics. The state-run council’s head professor, Yekta Sarac, told Anadolu Agency that it will develop a new ranking system for universities that will include criteria like employing women academics and administrators and campus safety, reports the Daily Sabah.

Sarac spoke on 8 June after a meeting with women rectors from universities in the capital Ankara. Though it lags in women employment, Turkey is ahead of the European Union and the United States in its ratio of women professors, but Sarac highlights the need to continue this momentum.

“We had a fruitful meeting today. Turkey is proud to have a higher number of women academics than other countries and another report scheduled to be released this month by the European Commission also shows a high number of women with university doctorates, in the research and development workforce.”
Full report on the Daily Sabah site