The proportion of female professors employed in academia in Turkey is now higher than the average in European Union countries, the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) announced Saturday.

Turkey has 207 higher education institutions, with nearly 8.22 million students and almost 91,000 academics in total.

The ratio of male students in higher education is 51% with over 4.17 million, while that of female students is 49%, increasing from 42% in 2002.

While the number of academics was 74,134 in 2003, this reached 180,065 in 2020, of which 98,404 are men and 81,661 are women. The proportion of women academics exceeds 45%.

Also, there are 51,412 research assistants in Turkey, where 26,352 are women, exceeding that of men at 25,060.

Turkey comprehensively outperforms EU

There are 10,011 female professors in Turkey, according to YÖK data.

Statistics show that Turkey has a higher proportion of female professors than the EU.

The rate of female professors in the country currently stands at 32.5%, outpacing the bloc average of 20.8%, and is now equivalent to the proportion in the United States.

With a female faculty member ratio of 45%, Turkey is ahead of the EU average of 41.3% and the U.S. average of 42.5%.