Turkey’s President Praises $3 Billion Economic Contribution of Int’l Students

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday spoke highly of international students’ role in the country, highlighting their significant contribution to the Turkish economy.

During an event held on September 13 at Istanbul’s Marmara University, Erdogan said international students’ annual contribution to the Turkish economy reaches $3 billion.

As reported by the Hürriyet Daily News, Erdogan also mentioned that there are a total of 340,000 international students studying in Turkey who hail from about 198 world countries, and a vast majority use their own money to fund their studies.

“There are 340,000 students [in Türkiye] from 198 different countries in the world. Of them, 95 percent study with their own means,” Erdogan said during the inauguration of education buildings at the Marmara University.

He said international students not only contribute to the economy while studying, but they continue to contribute to the country’s tourism, cultural diplomacy, and economy after graduation, Erudera.com reports.

Turkish President Erdogan said there were only 76 universities in Turkey in 2002. Today, there are a total of 208 universities that students across the country can enroll in.

A recent analysis by the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), an independent policy research institute affiliated with Sabanci University, citing data by UNESCO, shows the current number of international students makes Turkey the eighth most popular study abroad destination.

The IPC report published in May 2024 indicates that international student enrollment in Turkey increased from only 50,000 students in 2013 to more than 300,000 in 2023, a sixfold increase over a decade. The majority of international students in Turkey are from Syria.

“The current number of students from Syria, 58,213, represents a thirtyfold increase since 2013, with Syrians now accounting for roughly one in five international students in Turkey,” the report explains.

International students from other sending countries also grew between 250 and 5,000 percent in the past ten years. The top ten origin countries of international students in Turkey during 2022/23 academic year were:

• Syria (58,213 students)
• Azerbaijan (34,247 students)
• Iran (22,632 students)
• Turkmenistan (18,250 students)
• Iraq (16,172 students)
• Somalia (10,043 students)
• Egypt (9,597 students)
• Afghanistan (9,203 students)
• Kazakhstan (8,864 students)
• Yemen (8,198 students)

According to the findings, about 60 percent of international students in Turkey are men, and 40 percent are women. Around 80 percent of students from Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Yemen, three-quarters from Afghanistan and Nigeria, and nearly two-thirds of students from Azerbaijan, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Somalia are male.

Differently, in countries like Germany, Iran, and Bulgaria, there are more female students than male, 57 percent, 55 percent, and 53 percent female students, respectively.

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