The direct appointment of university rectors by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since July’s failed coup has stirred up tensions on campus and prompted claims of political interference in the education sector.
The state-run Bosphorus University in Istanbul is one of the most prestigious in the country. With its green lawns reminiscent of the Ivy League or Oxbridge, it is the traditional starting point for the Turkish elite.
However, beneath the gilded surface, tensions are simmering after Erdogan this month appointed Professor Mehmed Ozkan in place of the popular Gulay Barbarosoglu as the university rector.
He made the appointment under a measure allowed by the state of emergency that was imposed by the government following the failed bid by a rogue army faction to oust him.
Elections for rectors in Turkey’s 181 universities — 111 of them state-run — were suspended after the July 15 coup, with Erdogan picking winners from a pool of candidates selected by the education authority, YOK.
If Erdogan does not pick one of the candidates proposed by YOK within a month, he can choose the rector directly.
Outgoing rector Barbarosoglu won 86 percent of the vote among Bosphorus University academics in the July 12 election, held just three days before the failed coup.
Ozkan, an academic at the university’s biomedical engineering department and brother of a ruling party MP, did not run in the race.
After Ozkan’s appointment, Barbarosoglu said she was stepping down from her academic career.
“I bid farewell to our university where I have contributed for more than 40 years at various levels, as student, academic and administrator, and finalize my academic career,” she said.
The government has defended the new system, with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus saying that such elections had polarized universities.
However, academics and students slammed the appointment as a blow to the university’s autonomy.
“Am I worried? Very much. Students are also shocked and frustrated,” an associate professor at the university told reporters on condition of anonymity.
An Istanbul court in March arrested three academics, including Esra Mungan of Bosphorus University, on charges of “terror propaganda” after the three read out the joint petition signed by more than 1,000 academics urging an end to Ankara’s crackdown on Kurdish rebels.
Barbarosoglu “went to the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office and demanded that Esra Mungan be set free,” the academic said.
Some opponents compared Erdogan’s direct appointment of rectors to the move to install government-appointed trustees in municipalities in the southeast after several mayors were removed over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
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