Szent István University Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration Refugee students in the Turkish higher education in the light of the Syrian conflict Ph.D. dissertation Ahmet BARIŞÇIL Gödöllő, Hungary 2019 1 Szent István University Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration Name of Doctoral School: Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration Discipline: Management and Business Administration Sciences Head of School: Prof. Dr. Zoltán Lakner CSc, HAS Doctor Full Professor Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary Supervisor(s): Prof. Dr. József Poór DSc, Full Professor Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Department of Business Economics and Management Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary ……………………………………… ……………………………………….. Approval of Head of Doctoral School Approval of Supervisor 2 Table of Contents DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF GRAPHS.......................................................................................................................... 8 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 9 1. 1. Study Background ................................................................................................................... 9 1.2. Research Aims ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.3. Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 12 1.4. Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................. 12 2. MATERIAL AND METHOD .................................................................................................. 13 2.1. Sample .................................................................................................................................... 13 2.2. Instrument and Analysis ......................................................................................................... 14 3. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 15 3.1. The Civil War in Syria ........................................................................................................... 15 3.1.1. Syria prior to the conflict: its politics and demography ...................................................... 15 3.1.2. Syria prior to the conflict: its higher education system .................................................. 18 3.1.3. The Deraa demonstration and the civil uprising ............................................................. 22 3.1.4 Proliferation of the armed insurgency ............................................................................ 24 3.1.5. Advance of the Islamists and other terrorists ................................................................. 27 3.1.6. Foreign military interventions ............................................................................................. 31 3.1.7. Withdrawal of the Islamists................................................................................................. 34 3.1.8. Living conditions in government and opposition held territories ....................................... 34 3.1.9. Higher education during the civil war ................................................................................. 37 3.2. Impact of the Syrian Civil War on Turkey ......................................................................... 39 3.2.1 Arrival of the refugees to Turkey ......................................................................................... 39 3.2.5. Approaches to the refugees in Turkey ............................................................................ 45 3.2.6. Legal frame of the reception of refugees in Turkey ....................................................... 48 3.2.7. Turkey-EU agreement on refugees ................................................................................. 55 3.2.8. Services provided to refugees by the Turkish government and civil society organizations ................................................................................................................................. 61 3.2.6 Social insertion and integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey ............................................. 68 3 3.3. Situation of Syrian Refugee Students in Turkish Higher Education System ......................... 73 3.3.1. Turkish higher education system and foreign students prior to the Syrian Civil War ........ 73 3.3.2. Adaptation of the system to the urgent needs of refugee students ...................................... 80 3.3.3. Insertion and integration of refugee students ...................................................................... 84 3.3.4. Conflicts related to the rise of foreign students in the system ............................................ 90 3.3.5. Scenarios for the future of the education of refugee students in Turkey ............................ 92 3.4 Summary of the literature review ............................................................................................ 94 4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION .................................................................................................. 96 4.1 Methodology of the analysis ................................................................................................... 96 4.2 General level of satisfaction with the assistance of Turkish authorities and civil societies .... 98 4.3 Satisfaction with the assistance of the Turkish authorities and civil society on the level of higher education .......................................................................................................................... 106 4.4 Career in Turkey or abroad? .................................................................................................. 111 4.5 The influence of the Turkish economic and social reality on the career plans of Syrian refugee students ........................................................................................................................... 115 4.6 Private or public? .................................................................................................................. 117 4.7 General evaluation of the interviews ..................................................................................... 119 4.8 Quantitative analysis of the questionnaires ........................................................................... 125 4.8.1 Sample ................................................................................................................................ 125 4.8.2 Instrument ........................................................................................................................... 125 4.8.3 Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 126 4.8.4 Demographic Variables ...................................................................................................... 126 4.9 Reliability and Factor Analysis ............................................................................................. 127 4.10 Test of Normality ................................................................................................................ 128 4.10.1 Hypothesis 1 ..................................................................................................................... 129 4.10.2 Hypothesis 2 ..................................................................................................................... 130 4.10.3 Hypothesis 3 ..................................................................................................................... 130 4.10.4 Hypothesis 4 ..................................................................................................................... 131 4.10.5 Hypothesis 5 ..................................................................................................................... 132 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................... 133 6. NEW SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS .......................................................................................... 136 4 7. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 138 8. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 139 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 149 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................................... 151 5 DEDICATION Muhammed Ali Barışçıl, Sare Nur Barışçıl, Ömer Kaan Barışçıl 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Personal details of the respondents of the survey done for the present thesis ................ 13 Table 2.Number of students by faculty at the major public universities in Syria