Matt Porter

Matt Porter is a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in Turkey and a freelance journalist. While in Turkey, he has
published articles and video for American and Turkish news outlets. Before Turkey, he produced two
feature documentaries including In Good Faith (2008), a film about Boston’s Muslim community. Matt
graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Political Science and Theatre. He will pursue a Masters
in journalism next fall.

For the last ten months, I have been living in Turkey as an English teaching fellow for the Fulbright program. The Fulbright program provides grants to post-undergraduates interested in doing research or teaching abroad. The mission of the program is to spur cross-cultural relationships between the United States and other countries. I teach students who have been admitted to Turkish universities, but who need to pass an English proficiency exam before moving on to their major. While speaking with students and teachers at my university, I have learned about some surprising challenges facing Turkish students.

The biggest difference between the American and Turkish higher education system— and the challenge for my students—is how much their future relies on test scores and other hard numbers. These numbers do not just serve as cutoff points They dictate the school a student can attend, and even the department a student can choose. Students’ abilities are solely gauged from one three to four hour test, high school GPA, and from where they graduated. Once placed, students have little flexibility in changing their major without retaking the entrance exam. Some of my English students, for example, were previously enrolled in other languages because their score was too low for English departments.

The first time they took the exam they did not qualify for English, but instead for less competitive languages like Chinese and Japanese. These students often spend the following year studying and preparing for a second try at the exam.

The road to university in Turkey

Higher education admissions are very competitive in Turkey. According to a report from the Turkish Statistical Institute released in 2008, about 2 million students applied for roughly 590,000 spots. Turkish students take a standardized test just like their American counterparts, but unlike in the United States, admission is almost entirely based on their score which is then processed by the Council of Higher Education, known as YÖK.

Students gather across the country to take the OSS, the Student Selection Exam, usually the June after their high school graduation. The students wait another month for their results. After receiving their score, students examine the departments and schools in which they are interested in and take note of what the lowest score admitted was for each department during the previous year. This is the principal way students evaluate their chances of being placed into a program.

After analyzing their scores, students submit a number of preferences (sometimes as high as 16) to YÖK. In August, students receive notification of whether or not their score was good enough for any of their preferences. If the students are qualified, the highest possible preference available will be chosen automatically. Students are not sent admission letters from each university department, but instead a letter from YÖK that notifies them of their assignment.