Autonomy and Academic Freedom in Universities: Country Examples Based on Types of Governance

SummaryThe first university in Turkey is Istanbul University, which was established in 1933. The purpose of this research is to qualitatively and quantitatively compare the "organizational, financial, staffing, and academic autonomy" aspects of higher education in the models of decentralization (UK), federal (Germany), and centralization (France and Turkey) based on the results of the European University Association (UAE) University Autonomy in Europe, and to make comments and suggestions for higher education in Turkey based on the comparison results. The 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries saw an increase in the number of universities in medieval Europe, and they have continued to exist to this day. In European universities, the Humboldt model emerges in the early 19th century. Humboldt and Schleiermacher, while discussing the dual structure of universities, which includes scientific research alongside the teaching duty that leads to knowledge, highlight this dual structure as the distinguishing feature of universities compared to schools. The Humboldt model was implemented in the USA and Japan after World War II. In this model, a master's degree, doctorate, and habilitation exam have been introduced to become a professor. In this research, the autonomy dimensions of the 3 countries selected as models have been shown in tables for comparisons in the ranking of 35 countries. Turkish universities do not rank within the top 400, and they have no academics that have conducted research and won a Nobel Prize.