Governmental Supports for Students in Turkey: Beneficiary Perspective on the Use of Financial and Social Support in Higher Education

Providing financial and social supports to students is a common policy practice in many countries. Scholarships and basic services (food, accommodation, transportation, free health services etc.) are the most common supports provided to students. Particularly developing countries which follow quantitative growth policies in higher education need more comprehensive student support systems. In developing countries both access to higher education and maintenance of the higher education degrees is a challenging task for students coming from disadvantaged segments of the society. Based on these arguments, this study aimed at revealing the perception of higher education level students about the effectiveness of the supports provided by different public institutions (central governments, municipalities, and their own universities) in their access to higher education, in facilitating their study experience, and in contributing to their employability after their study. This study was designed as a survey study. Financial and social support policies are particularly important for students who attend faculties of education. Large scale studies conducted with pre-service teacher candidates suggest that the students attending these faculties are coming from socio-economically disadvantaged segments of society. Given these contextual characteristics, this study was conducted among faculty of education students. Data from 773 students studying at ten different public universities in Turkey were collected. The results indicated that the students find the role of the public supports as extremely weak in their choices of the field (education) for higher education study and in facilitating their lives during their studies. Besides, the participants indicated a negative perception about the role of public support in their future employability after study. These results show that the utility of the public support system is extremely narrow in impacting the students’ lives in Turkey