Why do the number of students and the number of academic staff in universities not increase at the same rate?

When we say that the rate of universitization experienced in Türkiye over the last twenty years has reached the dimension of "excessive speed," we are inevitably also pointing to the complications and distortions this speed may lead to. Excessive speed is a speed that goes beyond the normal flow of life, beyond the developments expected to occur in other institutions, and it is impossible for it not to lead to some problems.

We touched on these problems earlier in this column. Today I want to touch on one of these problems, the problem that the number of faculty members has not risen in parallel with the particular increase in the number of students.

Following some criticisms and requests from many universities in response to what we wrote on this subject, and of course based on my direct observations at the universities where I work and which I visit, I can say that this subject too constitutes a problem that must be addressed quickly.

Let us recall some figures again. Türkiye has raised the number of universities, 75 in 2002, to 208 today, but it has not stopped there: it has also raised its student capacity from 1 million 645 thousand to the level of 8 million today (including master's and doctoral students). That is, the number of universities has perhaps tripled, but student capacity has increased about fivefold. It is certain that the increasing universitization, concentrated in the service sector, has made and will make Türkiye, which responds quickly to the demands of the developing world, very advantageous in terms of human capital in the world we live in.

Whatever anyone says, let those who say that so many students only increase the army of educated unemployed keep saying it; the world we live in made such an education drive necessary, and Türkiye has gained an important advantage by responding quickly to this demand. In fact, it is clearly seen that the contribution of this human capital obtained through education is very great in the rapid developments we have made in the defense industry, health, software, agriculture and livestock.

But, as it turns out, there has been no increase in the number of faculty members parallel to this universitization rate, determined as the ratio of the number of students to the population. The figure we have on this is that the number of faculty members, which was at the level of 70 thousand in 2002, has risen today to only 185 thousand. That is, against the number of students, which has increased almost five-fold, the number of faculty members has increased only two and a half times.

According to the YÖK's 2022-2023 academic year statistics, of the currently existing faculty members, 34,280 serve as professors, 22,462 as associate professors, 44,216 as faculty members with doctorates, 37,039 as lecturers and 46,569 as research assistants.

According to these data, the number of students per total faculty member in higher education institutions in Türkiye is 37.6. Going into a little more detail, one sees that the number of students per professor is 202.7, and the number of students per associate professor is 157.1. Frankly, these figures show that, in response to rapidly increasing universitization, a serious drive awaiting us is to increase the number of faculty members.

We had actually touched on this before as well. One of the most important debates of 2007 was that the number of faculty members, especially in the field of medicine, was excessively low relative to the number of students. In response to Türkiye's urgent need for health personnel, the quotas of medical faculties, relative to the number of faculty members, were lower than in the world's most developed countries. Viewed from the outside, one might have thought this was an indicator of very high quality in medical education, but the situation was exactly the opposite. With excessive commercialization in medicine and professional-protection reflexes, the existing medical professors were training students far below the existing student capacities. As a result of the debate between the government and the YÖK administration on this, the government had barely persuaded them to increase the quotas of medical faculties. Later quotas in other faculties and departments were also increased, with attention to the ratio of faculty members to students, but at the point we have reached today, the fact that the number of faculty members has increased much less than the increasing students leaves us facing a serious quality problem. This too must by all means be addressed.

The concrete problem we encounter in universities is that the allocation of faculty positions to universities is far too small. Indeed, in this regard, the allocation of faculty is far lower than the ratio of teachers under the Ministry of National Education. Indeed, according to the Ministry of National Education's 2022-2023 academic year data, 1 million 200 thousand teachers serve for the education of over 19 million students in Türkiye. This produces a picture in which there is one teacher per 16 students. This is of course a very good development for national education, with nothing to criticize about it. That the figure should be aimed to be reduced to the level of 10 is another matter. But meanwhile it is also necessary to dwell on there being a parallel position allocation in Higher Education.

Especially since the professor-student relationship at the university is not made up of a teaching relationship alone but requires a research-and-development and master-apprentice relationship, it is very important that the faculty member not be consumed solely by teaching activity. Professors, especially in master's and doctoral education, need much more time to devote to their students, perhaps to take part in their work, to listen to them, and to improve themselves, and more joint effort. This is essential so that the university environment is not reduced to a mere teaching industry.

Meanwhile, because of the restrictions experienced in the allocation of faculty positions to universities, there are many who are waiting, although they have finished their doctorates or obtained their associate professorship or met the conditions necessary for professorship, only because of insufficient positions. Though this is a situation that nullifies all the criticisms of those who did not fall short of criticisms, while so many universities were being opened, because of the lack of faculty members. Today there is a surplus of professors, and the problem of the lack of sufficient positions for them is being experienced.

Of course, observing certain quality conditions in the appointment criteria is extremely normal and necessary, but the fact of faculty members who meet these criteria yet cannot be appointed because of the lack of positions is a problem that must be rapidly addressed, taking into account also the disproportion of faculty members and students.

YÖK needs to present the gravity of the situation more insistently to the government and the finance ministry regarding position allocation. Otherwise, in contrast to the universitization rate we boast of, this deficiency is bound to work as a factor pulling quality down.