President of the Council of Higher Education, Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, announced that Ondokuz Mayıs University was included in the Research University Candidate Monitoring Program.

Along with Ondokuz Mayıs University, Akdeniz, Gaziantep, Kocaeli, Sakarya and Selçuk Universities were also included in the "Research Universities Candidate Monitoring Program"..

Those of the universities included in the program that meet the criteria will also be accepted as Research Universities without changing the total number of 23.

Within the scope of the "Research Universities" program launched by the Council of Higher Education in 2021, there are 23 Research Universities in Turkey. Research universities are evaluated according to a total of 32 performance indicators on research capacity, research quality, interaction and cooperation.

In their speech at the meeting held at the Higher Education Council, Erol Özvar stated that the performances of universities are regularly monitored by the Research Universities Monitoring and Evaluation Commission.

Within this framework, Özvar stated that the six universities included in the Candidate Monitoring Program will be included in a 2-year monitoring process, and those that meet the criteria at the end of 2 years will be accepted as "research universities".

Emphasizing that each of the 208 universities in Türkiye is regularly monitored for their annual performance in research, publications, projects, cooperation with stakeholders, interaction, education and training, Özvar said:

"Although they are not included in the research universities program, we want to increase the motivation of our universities that enhance their research, publication and project performances every year by offering them the opportunity to be included in the program and to create a new synergy by including our universities that have the potential to become research universities in this sweet competition. We encourage all our universities to generate competitiveness and attach great importance to this. Universities that produce competitiveness are good universities."

Stating that the share allocated to research universities from the budget has increased every year, Özvar said, "I attach importance to supporting our professors and institutions that produce more academically. We aim to reward universities that produce and perform more and encourage our universities whose productivity decreases."

In addition to Erol Özvar, the following attended the Research Universities Candidate Monitoring Program Meeting: Prof. Dr. Haldun Göktaş, Deputy President of the Council of Higher Education, Higher Education Executive Board Members Prof. Dr. Naci Gündoğan, Prof. Dr. Erol Arcaklıoğlu, Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, Prof. Dr. Arif Bilgin, Secretary General Batıkan Aksoy, Rector of Ondokuz Mayıs University Prof. Dr. Yavuz Ünal, Rector of Akdeniz University Prof. Dr. Özlenen Özkan, Rector of Gaziantep University Prof. Dr. Arif Özaydın, Rector of Kocaeli University Prof. Dr. Nuh Zafer Cantürk, Rector of Sakarya University Hamza Al and Rector of Selçuk University Prof. Dr. Metin Aksoy.