Our University has adopted, as one of its institutional objectives, the goal of increasing access to higher education for socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals and, in particular, supporting access to university education for students who fall within the bottom 20% of the national household income distribution. Within the framework of our publicly available “Bottom Financial Quintile Admission Target”, the University aims to monitor the application, admission, study, and graduation processes of students from low-income groups and to reduce the socioeconomic barriers that may hinder their access to higher education.

Since undergraduate student placement in Türkiye is carried out through the centrally administered YKS national university entrance and placement system, our University does not operate a separate admission quota based directly on household income. Instead, the University has adopted a long-term approach based on widening access, monitoring, and support in order to increase participation in higher education among students from low-income backgrounds.

This approach is also supported by the KTÜ 2024–2028 Strategic Plan (https://www.ktu.edu.tr/dosyalar/tr_JQFYj.pdf). In the Strategic Plan, students experiencing poverty are explicitly identified among disadvantaged student groups, and a target of 52 activities for 2025 was set to facilitate the learning of these groups and support their integration into university life. In the University’s 2025 institutional performance evaluation, this indicator was reported to have achieved a 100% implementation rate.

Our University also implements scholarships, meal support, and other social support mechanisms to help economically disadvantaged students continue their university education. In this way, within the framework and limitations of Türkiye’s centrally administered higher education placement system, the University pursues an institutional and measurable approach aimed at increasing access to higher education and supporting the retention of students from the lowest income groups throughout their university education

Evidence: (https://www.ktu.edu.tr/dosyalar/yonetim_FtBOr.pdf, https://www.ktu.edu.tr/dosyalar/yonetim_AtTKN.pdf).