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Appendix 7-5
Fulbright Program in Turkey: Seeking Diversity
Ersin Onulduran
Ankara University
Seeking Diversity
●How is diversity defined in a country where obvious ethnic and religious differences are difficult to assess? Application forms, as a matter of law, do not contain ethnic, religious etc. diversity questions.
●How successful have indirect ways to assess diversity been? Fairly successful, as we have experience in such matters.
Possible diversity definitions
●Religious minority applicants
The Greek, Armenian and other religious minorities are very small in number and usually very well off. Some applicants belonging to such groups have won Fulbright awards in recent years.
●Recent Immigrants
Recent immigrants of Turkish descent who came in large numbers from such places as Bulgaria and Central Asia
●People from underprivileged areas of the country.
Usually from the Eastern and Southeastern part of the country.
●Applicants from heretofore underrepresented universities and communities.
●Applicants with modest family means and background
Reaching out to the Diverse groups
●The central, country-wide placement examination is already a good equalizer. In any given university, even in the large cities, students come from all over the country.
●Student populations in large city universities are large, sometimes approaching 30 to 40 thousand in one university. This provides for a "normal" distribution of student backgrounds.
How do we do it?
●Personal campus visits to provincial universities as well as large city universities.
●Direct mail appeals to underprivileged areas of the country.
●Inviting department chairs to nominate best students from these universities.
●Revised application requirements (lower TOEFL and GPA)
●Newspaper advertisement. Effective but expensive
●Placed stories in national dailies
●TV and Radio appearances by Exec. Dir. and senior staff
●Establishing Fulbright Corners in ten underrepresented and diverse universities
●Making use of existing "American Corners"
●Piggy backing visits of consular officials around the country
●Mentioning Fulbright opportunities during the ambassadorial and PAO/CAO visits to various cities
●Inserting links into university web sites
●Word of mouth
●Poster blitz to individual departments
- 3000 will be sent this month
- Brochures given out at every meeting
Fulbright Program in Turkey
Turkish Student Program over the last 3 years
Applicant pool for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008
Map of Turkey
DIVERSITY statistics
| DIVERSITY |
total applicants |
% |
applicants interviewed |
% |
grantees |
% |
| Non-diverse |
248 |
51% |
107 |
46% |
38 |
50.7% |
| Diverse university |
65 |
13% |
29 |
13% |
8 |
10.7% |
| Diverse hometown/family |
178 |
36% |
95 |
41% |
29 |
38.7% |
| TOTAL |
491 |
|
231 |
|
75 |
|
|
GENDER statistics
| GENDER |
total applicants |
% |
applicants interviewed |
% |
grantees |
% |
| Female |
265 |
54% |
115 |
50% |
36 |
48% |
| Male |
226 |
46% |
116 |
50% |
39 |
52% |
| TOTAL |
491 |
|
231 |
|
75 |
|
|
DEGREE OBJECTIVE 2007-2008 statistics
| DEGREE OBJECTIVE |
Total applicants |
% |
Applicants interviewed |
% |
Grantees |
% |
| Master's |
428 |
87% |
199 |
86% |
59 |
79% |
| Visiting Student Researcher (PhD) |
63 |
13% |
32 |
14% |
16 |
21% |
| TOTAL |
491 |
|
231 |
|
75 |
100% |
|
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