Turkey is going to issue formal orders to grant working visa for foreign students who graduate from Turkish universities, president Recep Erdogan has said.
Turkey hosts at least 117000 foreign students for various under-graduate, Masters and PhD courses.
Addressing the 11th International Students Gathering at Istanbul’s Haliç Congress Centre here, president Erdogan announced, “soon all foreign students and graduates will receive working permission in Turkey.”
The annual event is organized by the Federation of International Students Associations. “All students will get health insurance without waiting three months,” Erdogan said on Saturday.
He said that Turkey aims to attract around 350,000 foreign students making it one of the world’s top five destinations for study abroad. “We not only open up our schools to visiting students, but our hearts as well,” Erdogan told the foreign students who had come from various cities and regions of Turkey for the annual event.
He said that the foreign students who graduate from Turkish universities return to their home countries after completing their education. “However, we would like to continue our relations with them in the future… no matter where they are coming from.”
Turkey has witnessed manifold increase in the number of foreign students taking up studies here.
According to Turkey’s Federation of International Student Associations (UDEF), there were only 10000 foreign students in Turkey in 2004.
“Compared with 2004, today we can say that Turkey has become an educational base,” said Mehmet Ali Bolat, the head of (UDEF).