CoHE President Özvar Attends 70th Anniversary of Ege University
May 20, 2025 / Izmir
Erol Özvar, President of the Council of Higher Education, visited Izmir on
May 19-20, 2025 to attend the 70th anniversary of Ege University.
Upon his arrival at Ege University, Özvar was welcomed by Rector Prof.
Necdet Budak, academics, administrative staff and students and attended the
wreath-laying ceremony at the Atatürk monument on the occasion of the 70th
anniversary. Built in 1926 by Austrian sculptor Heinrich Kriphel and
attended by Atatürk at the opening ceremony, it is the first bust of
Atatürk in Türkiye.
After his visit to the Rector's Office, Özvar attended the senate meeting.
In his speech, he emphasized that the internationalization of the Turkish
higher education system is one of the most important national projects.
Stating that they have achieved significant success with the umbrella model
of Türkiye-Azerbaijan University, Özvar said, “We will introduce this model
to other countries. One of these countries is Uzbekistan. Ege University,
Hacettepe University, METU and ITU will open programs at the International
University of Turkic States established in Tashkent. The success we will
achieve in Uzbekistan will carry our country's higher education further.”
After the senate meeting, Özvar attended the ceremony of pinning the
“Sports Friendly Campus” certificate on the wall, which Ege University
received at the Sports Friendly Campus Project Awards Ceremony held in Rize
last week. Özvar played football with CoHE Executive Board members and
academics and took a walk around the campus. Özvar chatted with Azerbaijani
international students he met on the way.
On the second day of his visit, CoHE President Erol Özvar attended the
opening ceremony of the central operating rooms of the Health Practice and
Research Hospital at Ege University. In his speech, he said, “At Ege
University, we will establish health centers of excellence that will serve
both our country and abroad in other fields, especially in the cardiac
field.”
In his speech, Ege University Rector Prof. Necdet Budak stated that the
building of the central operating rooms is one of the most important
structural investments at the Health Application and Research Hospital and
that it will shape the future of health services both architecturally and
technologically. “Our citizens will no longer wait in line for MRI,” Budak
said.
After the opening ceremony, Özvar and the accompanying delegation examined
the operating rooms and intensive care units. The new building quadruple
the existing bed capacity and will allow 70 people to be operated on at the
same time. The new building, which offers 59 operating rooms, 9 delivery
rooms, 8 endoscopy rooms and 205 adult and pediatric and 8 neonatal
intensive care rooms, draws attention as an important project to meet the
needs of Izmir and the surrounding region.
“Ege University 70th Anniversary Monument” commemorating the 70th
anniversary of Ege University was opened with a ceremony. After the
ceremony, CoHE President Özvar participated in the march accompanied by the
band and harmonica together with academics, administrative staff and
students.
Then he attended the presentation ceremony of academic promotion titles to
147 academics who contributed to the academic and scientific development of
Ege University. In his speech, he emphasized that Türkiye is playing an
active role in the reconstruction process of Syria under the leadership of
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“As the Council of Higher Education, we visited Syria with some of our
university rectors to contribute to these efforts. We signed a
comprehensive cooperation protocol with Syrian Minister of Higher Education
Marwan Halabi. The most important article of the protocol is the
establishment of a Türkiye-Syria University in Damascus. We will realize it
as soon as possible.
As stated in the 12th Five-Year Development Plan and the Strategy Documents
of the Council of Higher Education, we aim to have at least two
universities in the top 200, 10 universities in the top 500 and 50
universities in the top 1000 in international rankings by 2028. Our
universities have made significant progress in this regard.”
In the 2024 General Report on University Monitoring and Evaluation, Özvar
stated that they are very pleased to see that Ege University has shown a
successful performance in many evaluation topics and ranked high, and
added, “I sincerely congratulate the university administration, faculty
members and students who contributed to this success.”
Özvar met and chatted with students at the Science Communication Office at
the university. “We will hold science cafe meetings simultaneously with
universities in 81 provinces, TRNC and Azerbaijan in the last week of June,”
he said.
Emphasizing that university education cannot be limited within the campus,
Özvar said, “The science produced in universities will reach our nation
outside the campuses, in village cafes, fields, mining sites, ferries,
women's clubs, nation's gardens, nursing homes. Science communication and
science cafe meetings will further increase the contact of our universities
with society.”