Up to 15,000 Syrian students enrolled at Turkish universities last year, the head of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey said Thursday.

"Our country welcomes Syrian students," Yekta Saraç told a conference on Syrian participation in higher education at Mustafa Kemal University in Hatay, a southern province bordering the war-torn nation.

He added: "A solid higher education policy will help the Syrians integrate into economic, cultural and social life and qualifications and skills they receive will contribute to our country's growth."

Syrian students receive free education at Turkish universities.

Turkey currently hosts some three million Syrian refugees, more than any country in the world, and has spent around $25 billion sheltering displaced people since the beginning of the Syrian war.

Syrians began fleeing their homeland in 2011, at the start of the civil war that cost more than 400,000 lives.