The effects of the university reform in Turkey on narrowing gender GAP in higher education

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of a university reform on gender gap in higher education. It explores the university reform in Turkey over the past years as a natural experiment. The university reform has two important features, extending the coverage zone of the universities by constructing universities in every province, and increasing the capacity of the existing universities. The main purpose of this reform is to increase accession to higher education and raising qualified employees. This paper focuses on another outcome of this reform; it examines the impacts of the expansion of the number and capacity of the universities in order to eliminate the barriers on the gender gap in higher education in Turkey. In order to conduct this research, the panel data is constructed where the unit of observation is at the province level for the period 2007-2013.