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Improving Gender Equality in Higher Education in Turkey

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Abstract

Women’s representation in education-especially in higher education- is an important part of broader gender equity discussions. The gender imbalance in education is not a new issue; and Turkey is no exception. In fact, this has been the subject of an ongoing debate for years throughout the world. Governments from all around the world try to enhance gender equity in education, along with other facets of the issue, such as economical, social, work, etc. Since its inception, Turkey’s largest distance education provider Anadolu University, even though it is not an intended institutional policy, contribute to enhance the equal representation of both men and women in higher education. The study specifically aimed at to assess how gender ratio has evolved over 32 years, whether spatial clustering exists within the gender data around the country, and to what extent women were represented in higher education programs. To answer these queries, gender ratio datasets were examined using visual (mapping) and spatial cluster analyses. Findings support that, distant programs of the university have helped more women participate in higher education programs across the country over the years, leading to relatively more normalized distribution of gender in education across the geographical regions. Findings are encouraging for the University administration towards tailoring programs to attract more women, and the disadvantaged groups into the academic programs. Also, fee and payment structures of the courses can be re-aligned to better serve disadvantaged regions of the country. In addition, institutions all around the world providing mass distance education can review Anadolu University’s cost and program structure to create their own structures to enhance their gender equality issues in education.

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Notes

  1. According to World Bank classification (2011), the average income of middle-income economies was $3764.

  2. Turkey’s population is 77,695,904 people consisting of 50.2% males and 49.8% of the females (TURKSTAT, 2015).

  3. Due to the fact that distance education has become a prominent feature of Turkey’s education system, most of the higher education institutions in Turkey have started to establish their own distance education centers and also two more institutions, Istanbul University and Atatürk University have transformed their systems into dual mode universities, allowing them to offer distance degree and certificate programs.

  4. Second university opportunity gives a chance to university graduates or undergraduate students, enrolled in public or private colleges, another chance to pursue a different degree program within this system, without re-taking the National Higher Education Entrance Exam.

  5. The areas on the choropleth maps are distinctly colored, shaded, or patterned proportionate to the measurement of a particular variable. A color technique was preferred for analysis of both variables.

  6. Global Moran’s I is given by:

    $$ I=\frac{n}{\sum_{i=1}^n{\left({x}_i-\overline{x}\right)}^2}\times \frac{\sum_{i=1}^n\sum_{j=1}^n{w}_{ij}\left({x}_i-\overline{x}\right)\left({x}_j-\overline{x}\right)}{\sum_{i=1}^n\sum_{j=1}^n{w}_{ij}} $$
    (1)

    where n is the total number of spatial observations (i.e. district or region), xi is the value for the spatial district i, xj is the value for another spatial district j, \( \overline{x} \) is the mean value of all spatial districts, wij is the spatial weight between the district i and the district j. As seen from the equation (1), in order to calculate Moran’s I for spatial autocorrelation, the spatial weights matrix should be known or calculated. Many kinds of weight matrices are available in the literature, such as contiguity, based on distance, and k-nearest neighbor. For this study, a spatial weights matrix based on rook contiguity is calculated.

  7. Gender ratio is below average in individual provinces and their surrounding neighbors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Tour Guiding, College of Tourism, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Semra Gunay Aktas

  2. Department of Lifelong Learning, College of Open Education, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Evrim Genc Kumtepe & Fikret Er

  3. Department of Statistics, College of Sciences, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Yeliz Mert Kantar

  4. Department of Economic and Administrative Programs, College of Open Education, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Ibrahim Cemil Ulukan & Sinan Aydin

  5. Department of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information, Research Institute of Earth and Space Sciences, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Talha Aksoy

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  1. Semra Gunay Aktas
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  2. Evrim Genc Kumtepe
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Correspondence to Evrim Genc Kumtepe.

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This work was funded by Anadolu University (Project No: 1407F334). Necessary permissions for the data were obtained from the administration of College of Open Education.

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Aktas, S.G., Kumtepe, E.G., Kantar, Y.M. et al. Improving Gender Equality in Higher Education in Turkey. Appl. Spatial Analysis 12, 167–189 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-017-9235-5

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