First, the best members of a generation refrain from studying the basic sciences as they believe that other options offer better job opportunities and thus a better life standard.

We can say that choosing a profession in Turkey depends on your luck: you take the university exam and select universities you prefer among those for which your score qualifies. So, you can choose the university you want to study at provided that you perform well in the exam and fill out the university selection form reasonably. Actually, let me correct myself: this is the de facto picture. Students who ranked in the top 1000 in the Student Selection and Placement Examination choose whatever profession they desire as they are the best of their year. Examination results have a meaning, but have you ever checked what the figures tell about the professions the top 1000 choose? Seeing the results was  devastating for me. If you check the movement from 2008 to 2011, you see that the smartest no longer want to be engineers. Which professions do they prefer instead? What do the figures tell in terms of Turkey’s targets for the year 2023? If you are interested, please read on.

Shift to the services sector

In the rest of the world, the smartest and brightest young people choose basic sciences to do science; while in Turkey the target audience of the field recently has become students who lack basic skills like multiplication and addition. So, what departments do the brightest students prefer? As the 2008-2011 comparison tells, they used to prefer engineering faculties predominantly. The smart and bright young people in Turkey used to prefer applicable fields related to industry, where they could contribute to the technological innovation process in the basic sciences. Did this actually make a contribution to the innovation process in Turkey? No, not as far as I know. The level of sophistication of Turkey’s exports has not increased since 2008 or something. Still, it was a good thing that smart students preferred applicable fields associated closely to the manufacturing industry over the basic sciences. And look at the recent picture!

From 2008 to 2011, the number of students among the top-1000 who were admitted to engineering faculties decreased by about 23 percent despite an increase in the quotas. Meanwhile, the number of students who chose medical schools increased. How should we read this? The smartest and brightest young people in Turkey are no longer willing to work in industry, but in the services sector. Having seen the large number of engineering students, I used to think of a waste of resources. But it seems that the worst part of the story is yet to come: today, the smartest and brightest 1000 among a certain age group in Turkey increasingly prefer studying an applied science related to the services sector over one related to the industrial sector.

This is how I tend to read the above figures: first, the best members of a generation refrain from studying basic sciences as they believe that other options offer better job opportunities and thus a better life standard. Second, for the same reason, they do not prefer engineering faculties, an applied field associated with the industrial sector. Third, they prefer studying medicine, a services field. This is the first point to state. In this context, the second point is that such an economic setting cannot bring about an “information and technology exporter” by 2023 as was claimed in the booklet distributed during the AK Party congress. Not even if the prime minister gives instructions or thunders. Why? As the president stated during the opening ceremony of the Parliament, certain tasks can be accomplished only by creating a conducive environment by proper measures, not by giving instructions. And Turkey lacks a conducive industrial environment. Let this be the third point. I had a purpose when I said, “Turkey’s electronics giants have switched to construction.” This analysis also validates that.

Turkey is an industrial country, but one that is faced with the danger of losing all of its industrial accomplishments in the near future.

I believe that the youth has made the right choice: right for them, bad for Turkey. The shift in the preferences of the best should worry us all.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 05.10.2012