Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin attended the Vision and Awareness Trainings program organized for the 2023 Selection and Placement Program for Candidates to be Sent Abroad for Postgraduate Education (YLSY) scholarship recipients. In his speech at the event, Minister Tekin emphasized that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan places great importance on this program.

 

Noting that he envied the scholarship recipients in the hall where the program was held, Minister Tekin said, 'I would love to be in your place more than anything; you are truly fortunate.' He recounted that after graduating from university, he had applied to study abroad but received a letter from the Ministry of National Education during the February 28 process stating, 'It has been deemed unsuitable for you to be sent abroad.' Minister Tekin referred to himself as a 'victim of Article 1416.'

 

Minister Tekin stated that they made numerous innovations and regulations regarding Law No. 1416 in 2014 and said, 

 

There were troubling issues regarding MoNE 1416. Another issue was the FETÖ scourge, which somehow made contact with the individuals selected as scholarship recipients and began to exert tutelage over them, and such a process was underway. When I became undersecretary at the Ministry in 2013, based on my own experience and the incidents I had encountered, I said to our then-Minister, Mr. Nabi Avcı, 'We need to revise the 1416 scholarship.' Nabi Hodja gave us the initiative and said, 'Let's prepare whatever deficiencies there are and put them into a legal regulation.' We made technical changes.

 

Minister Tekin stated that he does not welcome individuals going abroad to conduct a study on Türkiye in good faith and said, "For example, a friend of ours is studying sociology and going abroad; let's say he or she is doing a master's or doctoral thesis on 'ethnic and religious minorities in Türkiye' in the UK. I am against this. We have so many academicians in Türkiye who can carry out this study. Frankly speaking, I do not find it very well-intentioned for the person we send abroad to conduct a study on Türkiye at the university where he or she is located. Therefore, we approached those friends we sent abroad with the statement, 'While you are abroad, you will refrain from conducting studies on Türkiye as much as possible; you are not going there to conduct studies on Türkiye; you are going there for other purposes.'

 

Minister Tekin stated that he views the scholarship recipients not as a minister but as an older brother, academician, and teacher, and that he has committed to solving the problems they face and providing them with the best opportunities to grow in a way that maximizes benefits to the country during their stay.

 

Minister Tekin mentioned that individuals who have been abroad for many years will share their experiences on the issues that need to be taken into consideration regarding education abroad within the scope of the orientation program. He added, "Hopefully, you will realize the blessings and this great opportunity you have and improve yourselves accordingly. We all owe debts to this country. I hope you will educate yourselves well and fulfill your debts to this country."

 

Fethi Fahri Kaya, the Director General for Higher and Foreign Education, stated that out of the 9,309 applications received for the announcement opened in response to requests from 27 public institutions and 81 universities, 2,550 candidates were entitled to be called for an oral interview.

 

Kaya stated that 563 candidates were entitled to be official trainees and that the students will be brought together with scientists in a four-day program to send them abroad equipped, and he said, "Our trainees have perhaps left behind the most important threshold of their lives with this scholarship they won thanks to their achievements. Their next achievements will now adorn our dreams for our country.