First General Assembly of the Turkic University Union operating within the framework of the Turkic Council, will be take place between on 16-17 October 2014 in the historic Silkroad city of Erzurum, hosted by the Atatürk University holding the current Chairmanship as stated by the Bodrum Summit Declaration.
The mentioned General Assembly will be attended by 14 member university rectors and their representatives from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. In addition, experts from the Council of Higher Education of Turkey are also invited to the General Assembly.
At the opening session of the General Assembly on October 17, Mr. Ramil Hasanov, Secretary General of the Turkic Council, Mr. Hikmet Kocak, Rector of Atatürk University and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Şişman, Executive Board Member of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey will address the participants.
Within the scope of the agenda of the General Assembly, the steps and direction plan towards the implementation of Orhun Process which was decided to be initiated within the Union, envisaging the student and academic staff mobility, will be discussed. The structure of the Quality Assurance Board which was agreed to be established as a related body of the Union as well as the development of relations with the Turkic Academy, which is recently started to function as an international organization, are among the other agenda items to be discussed.
After the completion of the negotiations regarding the Establishment Directive of the Youth Council, which will include one representative from each member university of the Union the signing ceremony of the Directive will take place. The Youth Council is planned to carry out comprehensive projects to strengthen the cooperation among the young university students of the Turkic World.
In accordance with the instructions of the Presidents of the Member States, under the auspices of the Turkic Council, works in the field of higher education in order to improve multilateral cooperation was started in the year of 2011. Four meetings of the Turkic University Union composed of 15 universities from 4 member states were held at the level of Rectors/Vice-Rectors, the first in March 2013 in Istanbul, the second in May 2013 in Bishkek, the third in November 2013 in Eskisehir, and the fourth in March 2014 in Izmir. At the second meeting “Directive for the Establishment of the Turkic University Union and its higher Education Area” was adopted. During the technical workshops hosted by Eskişehir Osmangazi University in November 2013 and hosted by the University of Aegean in March 2014, important decisions regarding cooperation in the field of higher education in the Turkic world were taken.
