Journal of Higher Education and Science

277-287

Authors: Pelin Deniz TEKNECİ

Turkey has witnessed a rapid massification in its higher education sector. The rate of total gross enrollment in Turkish higher education reached 79 percent in 2014 while it was 31 percent in 2004 and surpassed OECD averages. This study aims to depict the trends observed in the Turkish higher education sector. In this context, changes observed in enrolment rates, faculty and student compositions, expenditures and publication outputs of Turkish higher education institutions during the last decade are discussed. In addition, comparison with OECD averages are provided to understand the relative position of Turkey compared to other countries. Analyses have shown that Turkish higher education system performs very well in terms of higher education enrollment rates, female students, and female faculty members. Meanwhile, this study has revealed that it needs to improve its performance in terms of quantity of faculty members, doctorate students, and international students, funds received from abroad, participation of private sector, and quantity and quality of scientific publications. It is considered that issues which are exacerbated with the rapid expansion of Turkish higher education system can be handled effectively via deploying a comprehensive database regarding Turkish higher education system, promoting data based policy making, determining clear and measurable targets with associated costs in the national policy documents, and establishing a performance evaluation system for universities.

297-303

Authors: Volkan Hasan KAYA, Zafer BAHÇECİ, Elif KAYA

Atatürk's opinions and suggestions on education still keep their validity. Therefore, reviving the values which were recognized in the past and taking lessons from history should be one of the steps to be taken in order to reach contemporary civilization level. In this study, by using history research method. Atatürk's opinions on education were tried to be determined with the guidance of his views about education ,teachers, and elementary education. The existing situation was attempted to be identified and expalained by using descriptive research method of general research types. The data obtained in the result of source scanning was limited to the following the subject fields; “science”, ”education's place in human life”, “the importance of education for Atatürk”, “the importance of Education Congress”, “Atatürk's opininon on science”, and “youth and teachers in Atatürk's views”. Suggestions to education were presented in accordance with Atatürk's views.

317-325

Authors: Ayşegül UNUTKAN, Sultan GÜÇLÜ, Emel ELEM, Safiye YILMAZ

Gender discrimination adversely affected women in all areas of social life, especially in the fields of education, work, marriage and family life. Feminism has emerged to draw attention to the these impacts of gender discrimination and to reduce it's negative consequences. Social transformation is necessary to ensure gender justice. One of the important steps for achieving this transformation is to educate the youth and increase their awareness. This study was conducted with the aim to determine Dumlupinar University, School of Health students' opinions on feminism and gender roles. The population of this study consists of 1293 students. Sample is comprised of 846 students who accepted to enrolled in the study. Data have been collected with using a questionnaire and assessed with percentiles, Kruskal-Walls and Mann-Whitney U-Tests. 43.3% of students defined feminism as “a style of thought that advocates women are more superior than men” and 31.9% of them as “a style of thought that advocates the equity of social opportunity”. It was identified that male students have more traditional opinions on gender roles related to work, social, marriage and family life. This study has revealed that male students have more conventional opinions in the fields of in working and married life, while the male and female students have egalatirian opinions in the propositions about social life and family life. Besides, the results of the study have revealed that opinions of students on gender roles related to work, social, marriage and family life exhibit statistically significant differences among the departments for all of the statements given. It was observed that midwifery students have more egalitarian views. Also, it was determined that upper class students have more egalitarian opinions. As a result of our study, it has been seen that university students still have a traditional perspective on social gender roles. According to the results of the questionnaire we can state that the youth do not understand feminism with all its aspects and digest it. Therefore, the awareness of the university students about feminism and gender should be increased. It is also considered to be useful the creation of student groups advocating gender equity in universities.

333-350

Authors: Serdar ÜNAL, Berivan BİNAY

The extent to which academic disciplines are affected by the nationwide development and changes occurring at the level of higher education and what kind of quantitative changes this can potentially lead to in the relevant disciplines are significant. In this paper, the quantitative changes seen in the sociology discipline which we consider to have an important place in the social sciences category are provided on the basis of the developments made in the higher education sector in Turkey. The current profile of the discipline is discussed in comparison with historical data, as well. To this end, the study focuses on the historical development process of the sociology discipline and education in Turkey from a quantitative perspective. For this purpose, the historical changes of quantitative data on the available undergraduate and graduate programs in the field of sociology, on student demand for these programs and on academic staff are examined through various quantitative indicators. In addition, the distribution and change of the students and academic staff in the field of sociology are classified according to the geographic locations, the foundation years and the types of the universities. In this way, the current profile of the discipline of sociology is described and some inferences are made on its general trends, status and future projections in Turkish higher education system. In this respect, the findings presented in this article have a descriptive nature. In this study, quantitative data from the documents in the archives of the Student Selection and Placement Center of Turkey, Council of Turkish Higher Education and universities are utilized and the data pertaining to the discipline of sociology are analyzed and presented through some specific categorizations.

359-363

Authors: Ebru ÖZER, H. Serdar YALÇINKAYA

When a study of literature made on the factors affecting organizational commitment, many different elements are seen to affect organizational commitment. One of these factors is the price received by the employees. This study aims to measure the impact of Higher Education Personnel Law No. 2914 which has provided an increase in academics' salary on organizational commitment of academics. The first part of the study is focused on the concept of organizational commitment, whereas the second part is focused on the organizational commitment questionnaire survey evaluation of faculty members working in Turkey. As a result, it was observed that academics had organizational commitment before the increase in salary and their organizational commitment to their institution stepped up after the increase.

373-383

Authors: Alper YETKİNER, Murat İNCE

High-qualified human power is needed greatly in development process. A successful and qualified postgraduate education is rather important for especially underdeveloped and developing countries in being raised of this human power that is needed. Due to these reasons, being attached of the necessary importance to postgraduate education and being solved of the problems in the department is required (Sevinç, 2001). In this study, it is aimed to determine the problems that the individuals studying postgraduate education at Institute of Education Sciences encounter and to form solution offers concerning the problems encountered. In the study, qualitative research method and phenomenological research were used. The participants who study postgraduate education in different majors and departments in the Institute of Education Sciences at a state university constituted participants of the study. Data of the study was collected with semi-structured interview schedule designed by the researchers. The data collected in the study were analyzed by content analysis technique. The study findings revealed that postgraduate students had mainly problems of foreign language and Academic Personnel and Postgraduate Education Entrance Exam (ALES), problems of getting permission from their institution or school, communication problem with thesis supervisor and problem of toilsomeness of thesis writing process. In the conclusion, recommendations regarding problems encountered by students in postgraduate education are made.

396-401

Authors: Ayşegül KADI, Osman Ferda BEYTEKİN, Hasan ARSLAN

The purpose of this study was to examine the values and academic dishonesty tendencies of teacher candidates. The population of this study included teacher candidates who received pedagogic formation education during 2013-2014 academic semester at the Faculty of Education at Ege University. The study was conducted with 244 teacher candidates, who were chosen through convenient sampling method. Academic Dishonesty Tendency Scale and Portrait Values Questionnaire were used to collect data. It was a correlational study due to the investigation of the relationship between values and academic dishonesty tendencies of teacher candidates. It was also a survey study since the academic dishonesty tendencies and values of teacher candidates were examined in relation to demographic variables. The results suggested that there wass a significant difference between the values and academic dishonesty tendencies of teacher candidates for gender variable. The values and academic dishonesty tendencies of teacher candidates did not differ for different fields of study. There was not a significant relationship between the academic dishonesty tendencies and values of teacher candidates.