Globalization and its challenges for developing countries: the case of Turkish higher education

This paper examines the challenges faced by the Turkish higher education system and exposes the inequities and realities educators in a developing nation must struggle with as they try to find a prestigious spot in the knowledge-production industry. After a brief overview of the literature that illustrates how globalization penetrated into each stage of development of Turkey’s modern institutions of higher education, the paper presents a discussion, based on national and international statistics, of the challenges these institutions face as a result of globalization, namely increasing demands for higher education; faculty shortages; the internationalization of higher education; research and knowledge production; and the process of financing higher education.