Conditionality for Student Loans and Housing in Turkey

In the last week a number of media sources have reported that the Turkish Credit and Dormitories Institution for Higher Education has decided to stop all loan and housing assistance to students who engage, among other things, in “behaviors that violate the right to education such as acts of resistance, boycott, occupation, writing or drawing graffiti or chanting slogans.” (To see one of these articles, please visit https://t24.com.tr/haber/direnis-ve-boykota-katilan-slogan-atan-ogrencilere-ogrenim-kredisi-yok/235591.) I strongly regard the institution’s decision as an attempt by the government to put a hold on students’ political preferences and civil liberties. On the other hand, we need to be aware that this type of understanding of social policy is not entirely novel. It seems to me to be related to the nearly global trend for a shift from a rights-based to a conditions-based approach to social policy. In fact, this shift has often allowed social policy in Turkey to be reduced to some form of charity work or bribery in an attempt to create electoral loyalty among lower classes of society. I find this to be alarming. If we do not fight against such attempts promptly, we run the risk that one day they will become so firmly embedded in our culture that nobody can see why they should be harmful to democracy any more. We need to act now!