(AA photo)
Foundation universities hold nearly 79 percent of the 45,033 vacant spots in Türkiye’s formal higher education placements announced this week, with Istanbul Bilgi University suffering massive shortfalls following a trustee appointment.
The private institution left 40 percent of its undergraduate seats unfilled this year, worsening from a 30 percent vacancy rate last year despite shrinking its total quota. Its Communication Faculty saw only 175 students enroll for 419 available spots, becoming the most vacant faculty on campus. The Mechatronics Engineering department drew just five students for its 39 seats, rendering it the least preferred program.
Authorities appointed a trustee to Bilgi University in September 2025 due to an ongoing investigation into Can Holding. Officials initially ordered the university closed as part of the probe but later reopened the campus after students and academics faced significant hardships.
Across all foundation universities, known publicly as private universities, 35,706 of 176,080 formal spots remained empty this year, leaving roughly one in five seats completely vacant. State universities fared much better in the placement results, filling 479,392 of 481,684 available seats to reach a 99.52 percent occupancy rate.
Millions of students take the Higher Education Institutions Examination (YKS), the centralized university entrance exam, annually to secure a spot in universities across the country. The placement system heavily relies on candidates’ exam scores and their subsequent preference lists.
The Higher Education Board (YÖK) significantly slashed university quotas over the past few years, a move observers believe directly boosted the occupancy rates at state institutions. The board reduced total higher education quotas by approximately 246,000 between the 2023 and 2025 placement periods to prevent surplus capacities.
