Abstract
“COLLEGE OR FACULTY?” DEBATES ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MODERN UNIVERSITY IN TÜRKİYE
The Ottoman Empire planned a number of reforms in order to keep up with the developments in Europe and started to open educational institutions modelled on the West in order to cultivate educated people capable of implementing these reforms. The madrasa could not fulfil the functions expected of it due to its incapability of renewing itself and lagging behind the ages. Ottoman statesmen felt the need to open a Western-type higher education institution separate from the Madrasa. Almost at the same time, higher education institutions were opened under the name of Darülfünun in the Ottoman Empire and Darülulum in Egypt, taking French educational institutions as an example. While Darülfünun was a university, Darülulum was a teacher education institution. In this article, under the title of “Attempts to Open Higher Education Institutions in the Ottoman Empire”, the stages of the establishment of Darülfünun and Darülulum and the process until the closure of Darülfünun and the incorporation of Darülulum into the university are discussed. ‘The Debates on the Istanbul Darülfünunu: “College or Faculty? Discussions”, the discussions about the Darülfünunun, which came to the agenda in Cumhuriyet newspaper in the early 1930s, are included. Especially in the “College or Faculty?” debate, it was tried to reveal whether Darülfünunun was a university or not. In the conclusion, an attempt is made to compare both the Istanbul Darülfünunu and the Cairo Darülulumu in terms of their opening, functioning and the problems they faced. The Ottoman modernisation attempt was an insecure process that stalled at the slightest objection and progressed very slowly. In the failure of the reforms in the field of education, it should not be ignored that the institutions subject to reform were not systems developed by Ottoman educators, but systems that were tried to be adapted from a foreign civilisation. Therefore, it can be said that the reforms were modern in terms of establishment but could not get rid of the traditional structure in terms of implementation.
Keywords
University, Higher Education in the Ottoman Empire, Darülfünun, Higher Education in Egypt, Darülulum
