Yunus Emre InstituteAs part of its Young Academic Seminars series, the Yunus Emre Institute in London was pleased to virtually host “The Self-formation of Turkish International Higher Education Students”. This timely discussion was undertaken by Yusuf İkbal Oldaç, who is currently a PhD student at Oxford University, and was moderated by Turgay Durak.
The fascinating talk revolved around part of Oldaç’s research towards his DPhil project which examines the role of student “self-formation” among international students and how the perception of their contribution to their home-country has developed. With Oldaç’s focus on internationally mobile Turkish students, during the online seminar, he discussed his thematic analysis of his interviews with 50 Turkish graduates students in Azerbaijan (Baku), Bulgaria (Sofia), Germany (Berlin) and the UK (London).
In his research, Oldaç examines the development of interconnected human capital, social capital and civic values by internationally mobile Turkish students while studying abroad as well as how these could potentially contribute to Turkey. He related some of his findings during the seminar through sharing the experiences of Turkish Masters and PhD students in their host countries using notions such as integration, assimilation, separation and marginalisation.
Oldaç also stressed the bonds created between the students’ host and home countries. While using examples from the aforementioned interviews with Turkish graduates, he touched upon the subsequent economic, political, social and cultural opportunities arising between the two countries.
The talk ended with a question and answer session.
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