.){kind=link}
The brain drain rate among graduates of institutions of higher learning in Turkey increased to 2 percent in 2023 from 1.6 percent in 2015, with the United States being the most preferred country last year, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
TurkStat released its “Higher Education Brain Drain Statistics, 2021-2023” on Thursday.
The institute said the statistics, which provide information on Turkish citizens who completed their undergraduate education in Turkey and resided abroad for extended periods after graduation, are being published for the first time as part of the Official Statistics Program (2022-2026).
TurkStat added that the data source for this study is graduate records from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and information obtained from the Address-based Population Registration System (ABPRS).
According to TurkStat data, the brain drain rate for Turkey’s higher education graduates was 1.6 percent among women and 2.4 percent among men last year.
The top country that Turks who completed an undergraduate program preferred for emigration in 2023 was the United States at 21.4 percent, followed by Germany (17.5 percent), United Kingdom (11.2 percent), Netherlands (6.9 percent) and Canada (4.9 percent).
The education fields with the highest brain drain rates were information and communications technologies at 6.8 percent, engineering, manufacturing and construction at 4.4 percent and natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 2.6 percent.
When examining the brain drain rates of graduates, the program with the highest brain drain rates was molecular biology and genetics at 17.9 percent, followed by bioengineering (10.2 percent), management engineering (9.8 percent), electronics engineering (9.1 percent), mathematical engineering (8.9 percent) and computer engineering (8.4 percent).
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which has been ruling Turkey as a single-party government since 2002, is accused by its critics of eliminating academic freedom in the country and failing to provide scientists with the means to carry out their work.
Erdoğan secured yet another term as head of state in a presidential runoff election in May 2023.
After a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 followed by a systematic attack on academic freedom through the dismissal of professors from the country’s most prestigious universities and the cancellation of their passports as well as the shutting down of civil society and nongovernmental organizations, Turkish citizens began to feel the seriousness of the political pressure.
The brain drain has become a hot topic in Turkey in recent years, as political pressure has led the brightest minds of the country to leave in search of a better life.
The latest studies on Turkey’s ongoing brain drain find that the rise of authoritarianism, religious nationalism, financial difficulties and the government’s strict control over universities are the main inducements for emigration.