Draft bill on Health Sciences University to change academic system: Medical association head

Meltem Özgenç

Turkish Medical Association Head Bayazıt İlhan has said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s proposal to open the way for doctors working at state hospitals to become professors would completely disrupt the academic system.

“They are establishing the Health Sciences University. It will be under the full control of the Health Ministry. Academic titles will also be in the monopoly of political will. Such a structure is against academic freedom and autonomy. This means the university will come under the direct influence of the political will,” İlhan said.

İlhan said people who did not even work at universities had been made professors through indirect paths in recent years, causing substantial problems for hospitals as academic merit was not being taken into consideration.

“What the president says about opening the way for doctors does not go beyond opening the path for the staff who side with them [the government],” said İlhan.

The draft bill on the establishment of the Health Sciences University and the Turkey Health Institutes Directorate has been approved by the Parliament's health commission and is waiting to come before the general assembly.

Meanwhile, Health Ministry Deputy Secretary Hüseyin Çelik said criticism of the draft bill was unjustified, as the aim was to affiliate the current 59 training research hospitals in Turkey with the soon-to-be established Health Sciences University to make them gain university hospital status and improve their qualities.