The Higher Education Board (YÖK) decided to impose added measures to prevent those with foreign diplomas in medicine, law or engineering from automatically receive accreditation to practice their profession in Turkey. Those with diplomas from universities outside the top 500 worldwide will need to get a passing grade in the Higher Education Examination-Undergraduate Placement Examination (YGS- LYS) university entrance examinations.
YÖK, which is the top tertiary watchdog, assessed complaints about diplomas given by universities in the Balkans, Middle East and Turkic republics. Many tour operators arrange for Turkish nationals to be admitted to such universities, which hand out diplomas without compulsory attendance or even any language proficiency. YÖK decided that most diplomas received in such a fashion could not be given equivalency documents.
Students receiving diplomas from universities outside the global top 500 will be required to take the university entrance examinations. In order to qualify for the equivalency documents, graduates from medical faculties will have to score high enough to be among the top 40,000 entrants. For law degrees, graduates need to be in the top 150,000. For other degrees, graduates need to score higher than the lowest scoring student who entered the appropriate degree. Measures are thought to be in response to a series of fraudulently acquired university diplomas by Gülen Movement operatives in an effort to infiltrate state institutions.
