Türk Yükseköğretiminde Üniversite Yeniden Yapılanırken “İlmi Yurda Götürmek”: Üniversite Haftaları Örneği

This article examines how Istanbul University, after the University Reform, used University Conferences to present science as a public mission and to position itself as an institutional actor in the intellectual life of the early Republic.

About the Article

This article reconsiders the reorganization of Istanbul University after the 1933 University Reform through the Humboldtian ideal of the university. Focusing on the unity of teaching and research, the unity of the sciences, and Bildung, it argues that the reform involved more than an administrative restructuring of higher education: it sought to constitute the university as an institution charged with shaping the scientific, cultural, and civic life of the Republic. The article reads the University Conferences and University Weeks as practical enactments of this public vocation. Through these initiatives, the reorganized university extended its authority beyond the campus, presented scientific knowledge as a national and civic resource, and addressed the formation of educated citizens and republican elites. In this way, the article situates Istanbul University at the intersection of higher education reform, state cultural policy, and the making of intellectual life in early Republican Turkey.

Contribution

• Reinterpreting the reorganization of Istanbul University with the Humboldtian model, Bildung, and the unity of teaching and research.
• Analyzing the University Weeks as an institutional expression of the new university model.
• Positioning the university in early republican cultural formation.