Turkey ‘needs central control’ to stem academic ‘inbreeding’

Turkish academics say recruitment reforms are needed to fix academic “inbreeding” and the nepotistic “abuse” of a newfound institutional autonomy. 

A new study by Engin Karadağ and Şerife Çiftçi, a husband-and-wife team from Akdeniz University in Anatolia, looks at how the practice of universities hiring their own graduates as staff plays out across Turkey's fast-growing academic sector. 

Looking at Web of Science data from 88,162 doctorate-holding faculty members, they found that 22 per cent had spent their entire undergraduate, postgraduate and working careers at a single institution. “It is one of the highest rates obtained in the context of an entire country,” said Professor Karadağ, adding that the study was unique in covering all academics in Turkey. 

Controlling for other factors, the authors found that a 1 per cent increase in the number of “inbred” academics led to a 1 per cent fall in the total number of articles the institution published. Individual publications, citations and project management experience were also significantly lower among those who kept to their alma mater. 

“Recruitment processes in Turkish academia have not been merit-based for many years; nepotism and other formal and informal barriers to open and meritocratic recruitment continue to exist,” Professor Karadağ said. 

He said government reactions to political turmoil in Turkey over the past 40 years were also to blame. 

A successful 1980 coup d’état led to a clampdown on institutional autonomy, while the academic purges after a failed 2016 coup attempt led to a loosening of the reins two years later. “Turkish university administrators, who have not been accustomed to autonomy for years, abused this autonomy by employing their own graduates and this situation still continues,” said Professor Karadağ. 

He suggested that it would be “necessary to carry out recruitment processes centrally until the formation of academic autonomy and scientific culture”. 

Duygun Göktürk, professor of educational administration and planning at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, said: “Recruitment processes should be open and transparent, institutional mobility opportunities should be provided to researchers [and] governmental and institutional regulations to limit academic inbreeding should be considered.”

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com