ATATÜRK UNIVERSITY

A public university in Erzurum, Turkey.

Founded in 1957, it comprises faculties of agriculture, medicine, arts and sciences, economics and administrative sciences, education, engineering, dentistry, theology, and veterinary science (the last located in Kars), as well as the College of Education (one in Agri and one in Erzincan), the School of Nursing in Erzurum, and the College of Vocational Education (one in Erzurum and one in Erzincan). In 1990, the university had about 850 teaching staff and about 18,000 students (about 4,500 were female). The state-funded budget of the university for 1991 was 200 billion Turkish lire, of which about 50 billion was for capital investment.

Named for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first president of Turkey (1923–1938), the university was founded in an era of increasing U.S. influence in Turkish politics and society. While older universities in Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir were patterned after European models—mainly German and French—Atatürk University in Erzurum was modeled on an American land-grant college. Its original emphasis was on academic areas that would have a direct bearing on the needs of eastern Anatolia. From its inception, Atatürk University was aided by its association with the University of Nebraska; climatic similarity, especially in relation to the development of the region's agricultural potential, was an important consideration in this association. The university's teaching and research in the humanities, too, have been in harmony with the conservative and relatively traditional outlook of eastern Anatolian provincial society.

see also anatolia; atatÜrk, mustafa kemal; erzurum.

Bibliography

Higher Education in Turkey. UNESCO, European Centre for Higher Education. December 1990.

I. Metin Kunt