Legacy in exile? Refugee professors from Nazi Germany and the reformation of Turkish academia

Abstract This study reexamines the legacy of refugee professors from Nazi Germany who arrived in Turkey during the 1930s, a formative moment in the reformation of Turkish higher education. Their forced migration coincided with a state-led reform aimed at modernizing the university system along Western lines. The influx of exiled scholars introduced exogenous variation into a developing academic system, creating conditions akin to a natural experiment for examining the long-term effects of academic mobility under political displacement. Using a historical cohort design and documentary review, the study draws on original data for 433 Ph.D. recipients in the Natural and Formal Sciences trained between 1933 and 1969. Archival, bibliographic, and biographical sources are used to reconstruct advisor–student relationships and long-term academic and non-academic outcomes. Multinomial and regression models examine advisor selection and career trajectories across three advisor types: foreign professors, domestic professors with foreign training, and fully domestically trained advisors. Contrary to dominant narratives, students advised by domestic professors with prior Western academic experience consistently outperformed those mentored by refugee or fully domestically trained advisors. While foreign professors contributed to institutional reform and the introduction of modern research standards, their doctoral students did not achieve uniformly superior outcomes. The findings also reveal persistent inequalities, particularly affecting minority students, alongside strong advantages for high-achieving students who secured scholarships. By linking forced academic migration, mentorship, and long-term outcomes, this study contributes to debates on knowledge transfer, institutional development, and the contested legacy of exile in shaping national academic communities.