Abdullah Eren, head of the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), which provides grants to international students, said Turkey broke a record in the rate for refugee students in higher education.

Addressing a conference in Istanbul entitled "Higher Education for Students Under International Protection," Eren said the schooling rate for university students elsewhere was only around 1% while it was 6% in Turkey.

The YTB runs Turkey Scholarships that offers higher education grants to 16,000 students from more than 170 countries.

Eren said they developed different models to prevent a so-called "lost generation" of refugees who miss out on an education. Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, the largest number in the world, and strives to enroll the "lost generation" into the public school system. Eren says they cover the higher education part of the efforts and offer tuition for Syrian students as well as giving them direct scholarships.