CoHE Raises Quality for Employment of International Academic Staff 

January 18, 2020 ​​

The Executive Board of the Council of Higher Education has redetermined the procedures and principles regarding the employment of international academic staff, which will be effective from January 20. The circular letter determining the "Procedures and Principles Regarding the Employment of International Academic Staff" was sent to universities.

The New CoHE has recently realized a series of new and innovative decisions to raise the bar of quality in higher education, to produce the quality knowledge needed in line with the country's development goals, and to train high-quality labor force. In this context, the requirements for the employment of international academic staff were updated with a perspective that primarily focuses on the quality of education.

Special conditions for the employment of international academic staff

The minimum requirements for the employment of international academic staff to be employed in the foreign language preparatory classes of higher education institutions were determined.

​It will not be enough for English native speakers to be employed as an English instructor in English preparatory classes. They are required to have at least a Bachelor's degree in one of the fields such as English Language and Literature, Linguistics, Teaching or Educational Sciences. English native speakers who are not graduates of these majors are required to have at least two years of language teaching experience.

Again, it will not be enough for non-native English speakers to have at least a Bachelor's degree in one of the majors, such as English Language, English Literature, and English Language Teaching. They will be expected to have at least two years of language teaching experience in an accredited language teaching center that is recognized internationally and to have a DELTA or CELTA foreign language certificate.

International academic staff who will be employed for teaching foreign languages other than English will also be required to have work experience.

In addition to a doctoral degree, academic experience and publications will be required for employment in undergraduate and graduate programs

International academic staff who will be employed in higher education institutions to teach at the undergraduate and graduate level will be required to have a doctoral degree and verify their proficiency in the language of instruction of the program. They will be required to have either worked as a lecturer at least for a year in a higher education institution recognized by CoHE or have at least one book published in their field or have at least five articles published in refereed journals in the last five years. Lecturers will also be required to have work experience to get employed in Associate degree programs.

- Employment intended for research while teaching

The Executive Board of the Council of Higher Education expects international academic staff to take part in projects and research activities as well as teaching.

International academic staff, who either have a master's or doctoral degree from one of the universities listed in the university rankings such as THE, QS and ARWU or worked as an academic or researcher at least for a year at those universities or wrote at least ten articles for indexed journals that are accepted as distinguished journals by the competent council of the university they will be employed at or worked as a coordinator, executive or researcher in at least one scientific research project that contributes to science and industry, will be particularly encouraged to get employed.

Academic staff who can teach and work in projects or researchers could also be employed for a short term, no less than two months.

- Contract terms of those who cannot meet the new requirements will not be extended

International academic staff who are working in higher education institutions will be given additional time starting from the end date of their contracts to meet the new employment requirements if they are considered as being beneficial because of their work.

- Most of the international academic staff are employed in social sciences in our country

​20.79% of international academic staff working at Turkish universities are employed in foreign languages, 28% of them are employed in social sciences, 16.75% of them are employed in science and engineering, 9.92% of them are employed in fine arts and conservatories, 4.70% of them are employed in vocational schools, 4.58% of them are employed in health sciences and 15.26% of them are employed in other fields.

Source: Anadolu Agency