Mobility Statistics

Two kinds of foreign students enrol in Turkish Universities:  fee-paid/scholarship students and Erasmus (exchange) students.  OSYM statistics indicate that the number of foreign students studying in Turkey is gradually increasing: The figures of OSYM show that there are 26,000 foreign students studying in Turkish universities, which represents a 59% increase in five years. 

Fee-paid and scholarship students

The number of foreign students was 43,251 in the 2012-2013 academic year.
Attending Turkish universities are 


     •  7,379 students from Azerbaijan
     •  6,136 from Turkmenistan
     •  4,221 from Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC)
     •  1,822 from Germany
     •  1,704 from Greece
     •  1,690 from Iran
     •  1,679 from Afghanistan
     •  1,263 from Bulgaria
     •  962 from Syria
     •  922 from Kazakhstan
     •  904 from Kyrgyzstan
     •  901 from Mongolia
     •  735 from Kosovo
     •  713 from Russian Federation
     •  573 from Iraq
     •  535 from Macedonia
     •  514 from Democratic Yemen
     •  513 from Nigeria
     •  507 from Albania
     •  471 from Georgia
     •  459 from Somalia
     •  431 from Palestine
     •  430 from Bosnia and Herzegovina      
     •  430 from United Republic of Tanzania
     •  380 from Tajikistan
     •  369 from Equatorial Guinea
     •  346 from China
     •  346 from Czech Republic
     •  302 from the US
     •  282 from Ukraine

Erasmus Exchange students 

The Erasmus Programme is an EU exchange student programme that has been in existence since the late 1980’s. Its purpose is to provide foreign exchange options for students from within the European Union and it involves many of the best universities and seats of learning on the continent.  The programme is funded by many of the EU member nations and is aimed at cross-border cooperation between states to aid the growth of international studying, and with over 4000 students involved in the programme at any one time it offers an excellent chance of experience abroad.   Students can choose the length of time they spend abroad, with a minimum of three months recognised as the qualifying period, and the general idea behind Erasmus is to engender the sharing of languages throughout the EU states. It is a successful programme that is well used and popular

There has been a significant increase in the number of students opting for Turkish universities in the Erasmus Programme since 2004 when 299 students came to Turkey.   The number of Turkish students travelling to Europe for educational purposes skyrocketed to approximately 3,000, as the number of incoming Erasmus students boomed to 1,400 only in three years.  A further 25% increase in the number of incoming students brought this number to 4,700 in the 2011-2012 term.  Some of the countries which send the highest number of students to Turkey in 2012 are: 

     •  1,128 students from Germany 
     •  658 students from Poland
     •  470 students from Holland
     •  423 students from France 
     •  235 students from Italy
     •  235 students from Lithuania
     •  188 students from Spain