TÜBİTAK Ranks Turkey’s 50 Most Entrepreneurial Colleges

Minister of Science, Industry, and Technology Nihat Ergün announced the Entrepreneurial and Innovative University Index, which the ministry will use annually to measure the level of entrepreneurial fostering in Turkish colleges. The index was prepared under the leadership of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK).

Minister Ergün revealed the index for the first time with a press conference organized at the ministry, and announced that the index will be renewed each year and will be announced before the university placements are made to better guide prospective students. The index is a result of collaboration among TÜBITAK, The Council of Higher Education (YÖK), Turkish Statistical Institute (TUİK), Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, Ministry of Development, Ministry of Finance, Turkish Patent Institute (TPE), Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV), Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (KOSGEB).

At the press conference, Minister Ergün explained that the universities with fewer than 50 faculty members have been excluded from the index, which explains the inclusion of 126 universities out of the country total of 168. That the index comprises 23 indicators under 5 main dimensions, which are scientific and technological research competence, intellectual property pool, cooperation and interaction, entrepreneurship and innovation culture, and economic contribution and commercialization.

The inaugural list, which placed Sabancı University at the top, includes six universities from İstanbul, three from Ankara, and one from İzmir in its top 10. The top 10 universities displayed an equal distribution of state and private institutions. Private universities like Sabancı, Bilkent, and Koç saw the fledgling Özyeğin University take its place among them. On the other hand, many prestigious state institutions, like the centuries-old İstanbul University and the large Marmara University, struggled to keep up, but the usual suspects—Middle East Technical University (METU), İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ), Boğaziçi University—performed as expected.

[table id=9 /]

This article by Bahadır Atasoy, originally published in sosyalmedya.co in Turkish, is adapted into English by Süleyman Okan.