The sacking of three elected deans from Bogazici University could signal a renewed attack on institutional autonomy and freedom of speech in Turkey’s universities, warn scholars. The dismissal of Ozlem Berk Albachten, Metin Ercan and Yasemin Bayyurt by Turkey’s Higher Education Council (YOK) follows a tumultuous year at Istanbul’s premier university, which has been riven by student protests since a loyalist to the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was installed as rector in January 2021.

Since the appointment of outsider Melih Bulu, a member Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party who was accused of plagiarising his Ph D, over 600 student protesters have been arrested, and some of them face jail sentences of more than 30 years in Turkey’s notoriously cruel prisons.

It is believed the deans were made redundant because of their support for academics who criticised the appointment of Dr. Bulu — who was later dismissed. Scholars have held a daily vigil to protest against his successor, Naci Inci, another Erdogan supporter.

The dean’s dismissal follows a sustained attack on academic freedom within Turkish universities in the wake of an attempted coup in 2016. In the years since that putsch, more than 6,000 academics have been sacked and about 3,000 schools and universities closed over alleged links to the failed coup allegedly led by exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen. Several emigre Turkish scholars told Times Higher Education that the most recent sackings at Bogazici are particularly troubling because they signal that even mild political dissent won’t be tolerated in universities.

“This latest event makes many educators like me hesitate to return and work in Turkey,” says Bogazici graduate Elif Balin, now an assistant professor at San Francisco State University. “This constant attack on institutional independence, academic freedom, job security and the right to peaceful protest, along with filling administrative and academic positions with non-elected and partisan members, makes many people — especially young people in Turkey — question the quality of their education and diminishes their hope for the future,” laments Balin.

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