Türkiye’de Yükseköğretim Çalışmaları: Eğilimler ve Öneriler

In recent years, especially since 2015 when higher education studies have been recognized as a scientific field of study for associate professorship, an increase has been observed in studies in higher education in our country. In addition to scientific research, establishing higher education-oriented associations and centers, organizing conferences and workshops, and publishing journals for higher education studies can be seen as indicators of efforts to increase the importance given to this field and to solve problems in the field. From this perspective, evaluating the outcomes of all these academic activities and researches in the field of higher education in our country is important for the development of the higher education field and the creation of data-based policies. The purpose of this study is to explore the trends in higher education studies in our country. In line with this objective, articles published in higher education journals and papers that were presented in conferences that specifically focus on higher education were analyzed. As a result of the content analysis, one of the most prominent findings of the study is that the most researched topic was regarding undergraduate programs and the evaluation and the improvement of these programs. Apart from that, the themes that are prominent in articles and conference papers differed. It was also found that empirical studies were more prominent and qualitative research approaches were used more frequently. In the light of these findings, constructive suggestions with regard to policies and academic studies were presented for researchers, conference organizers, journal editors, administrators and policy makers to allow policies and research to feed and be fed from each other.