Higher Education in Turkey in the EU Harmonization Process: An Analysis of Living Conditions of Agricultural Engineering Students with a Comparison Between Genders

Abstract

This study analyzes the conditions agriculture students in Turkey are provided with in terms of housing resources, research funding and family background to determine how comparable the Turkish college youth is with their counterparts in Europe. The research made shows that students coming from working class or agriculturist families can only attend college if they receive governmental scholarship and/or hold a job while studying. The comparison between the genders shows that the fathers of most of the female college students have a better educational and professional background and, thus, come from households that have a higher net income than those of the male students on average. However, upon graduation, women have a higher tendency to suffer from unemployment.