Located between Asia and Europe, Turkey is not only a bridge between but also manifests itself in diverse cultures and experiences. Its cultural richness and diversity, shaped by its deep historical roots, cultures and beliefs stemming from its roots that extend to the Middle East, Anatolia and Balkans.

Throughout the history, Anatolia, where Turkey is located, has been the center of several civilizations since ancient times. Turkey has its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as cuisine, music, arts, literature and architecture.

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923. Since then, Turkey has strong historical and cultural ties with its neighbors and in its region. So far, Turkey has been playing an active role and set an example of democracy, diversity of religious as well as cultural understanding, as a way to building cooperation and bringing peace and development to the region.

Modern Turkey has a robust economy, dynamic civil society and an advanced democracy. Within the last decade, Turkey has achieved remarkable economic growth and substantial progress in political and social fields. Turkey is one of the fastest growing economies the World and now the 6th largest economy in Europe and 16th largest economy in the world.

Furthermore, Turkey seeks a more active role in regional and global developments. As a leading democracy in Middle East and Europe, Turkey represents and promotes universal values, human rights, dialogue, cooperation and partnership in the region, as a fundamental principle of Turkish Foreign Policy of “Peace at Home and Peace in The World.”

 

Our country is in great change in the area of higher education with the enhancing numbers of universities, research centers, academicians and with its dimensions of internationalization.

In the last 10 years, the number of international students studying in our higher education institutions has increased by 75% and according to current figures, our country became one of the most international student welcoming countries in the world with approximately 150 thousand international students, 17 thousand of which are scholarship students.

Our country aims to host 200 thousand international students by 2023. While the number of students studying in a country other than their home country was only 800 thousand in 1975, this number reached to 4 and a half million in 2010. It is estimated that this number is reached 7.5 million today and is expected to reach 20 million by 2030.
On the other hand, the number of students enrolled in a higher education program all over the world is also increasing rapidly. While the number of students enrolled in any higher education institution in the world in 2009 is 170 million, it is estimated that this number will be 262 million in 2025.

Education was once seen as a way of cultivating the human resources demands of a country in the line with its own national needs. Nowadays, to the extent of the problems of our world are universal and concerns the whole of humanity, the aim of education becomes to educate generations who can find common solutions to the shared problems.
From this point of view, it can be said that individuals who come from different countries and cultures and have received international education apart from the countries they are from, have a unique experience and obtain different achievements.

As far as countries are concerned, many countries of the world today have made international student mobility a topic of competition and use it as a tool to provide benefits in their economic, cultural, academic and many other areas. Our country regards the works in this area as a very important opportunity, primarily in terms of constituting mutual relations with other countries.

Turkey's internationalization efforts in higher education is basically based on the following four principles:

 

Contributing to international student mobility in the region surrounding Turkey and around the world, Türkiye Scholarships brings together leaders of the future. Turkey believes that education-oriented relations between countries can lead to long-lasting friendships.

It is Turkey’s point of view that an educated young population with different cultural backgrounds provides a significant opportunity for the development of countries and the peaceful resolution of global problems. Türkiye Scholarships program has established its goals in line with these principles of Turkey, which are based on a global mutual understanding, solidarity and equality of opportunity.

With this global vision, Türkiye Scholarships program invites international students who are interested in receiving an education in line with the values of our era to attend universities in Turkey holding unique historical and geographical significance.