Students Cannot Live off Scholarships

Students from less well-off backgrounds face serious difficulties trying to get by. Cihan Erdal, a third year student in Istanbul, is only one of many.

Bawer Çakır

A university student needs around 1,000 TL a month (around 469 Euros) tol ive. However, students in need of financial support receive much less in scholarships, as Cihan Erdal, a Turkish Language and Literature 3rd year from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul told us.

Erdal receives a scholarship of 180 TL (around 84 Euros) a month from the Credit and Dormitories Institution (Yurt-Kur), but his expenditure, “without any luxuries” such as magazines, newspapers, CDs, or a football match ticket, amounts to 662 TL a month.

The recent police raids on the Association for the Support of Modern Life (ÇYDD) caused a debate on what would happen to the thousands of pupils and students receiving scholarships from the association, showing that many people depend on support to complete their education.

Erdal spends the following every month:

Dormitory rent: 75 TL

Food: 150 TL

Transport: 55 TL

Internet: 30 TL

Cinema: 32 TL (one film a week)

Books: 150 TL (including course books)

Theatre: 10 TL (two plays a month)

Cafés, etc: 100 TL

Mobile phone: 18 TL (100 units a month)

Clothing: 30 TL

Shoes: 12 Lira (two pairs a year)

He can pay for only some of it with his scholarship and depends on his mother, a worker, and his father, a civil servant (civil servants do not earn high salaries in Turkey) for support, while his brother is still at high school.

The ÇYDD association offers students financial support of 125 TL, and its Ankara branch supports 321 students.

Erdal is one of the lucky few who have managed to receive a scholarship. According to the Turkish Statitistical Institute (TÜİK), only 454,786 of the 2, 372,136 students in higher education receive support from Yurt-Kur, i.e. 19 percent.

Erdal, who is a member of the student youth trade union Genç-Sen, has been rejected by other organisations.

“Institutions who give scholarships have different criteria. Some are interested in where you are from, others offer or refuse you a scholarship because of your political opinions. Because I am in a trade union, I have been rejected by other organisations. On the other hand, students who do receive scholarships are expected to support the stance of that organisation with protests, meetings, etc.”

Erdal tries to fill the gap between what he needs and what the scholarship and his parents can provide him with with a credit card. (BÇ/AG)