At the Research Universities Meeting, an event that assessed university performance using 30 indicators pertaining to research quality, interaction, and cooperation, the ascent of Atatürk University in the rankings received considerable interest.

The yearly performance ranking of universities is structured into three distinct categories: A1, A2, and A3. Atatürk University, which occupied the A3 position in the 2021 performance ranking, maintained its commendable run by securing an A2 position in the subsequent performance evaluation utilising performance indicators. Atatürk University, which has increased in a total of 20 indicators, particularly the Rate of Publications Entering the 10th Percentile in Incities Journal Impact Value, Number of Patent Applications, Number of Faculty Members + Students in Circulation, Number of International Patent Documents, and International Projects Funding Amount, has maintained its success in the top five indicators with the greatest increase compared to the previous year.

The Consistent Ascent of Atatürk University
In 2021, Atatürk University occupied the 20th position out of 23 universities in the Performance Ranking of Research Universities. Within a year, it ascended three positions to the 17th position and has since maintained its position as a leader in this domain. The budget allocation of research universities for the year 2024, conducted in accordance with the Research Universities Support Programme (RUSSP), was also discussed during the meeting. Under the programme that provides financial assistance to twenty state universities, Atatürk University was granted a research budget amounting to 16,520,000 TL.

Ege University hosted the Research Universities Meeting

At this year's meeting, Ege University served as the host institution. It was inaugurated by Higher Education Council (HEC) President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar and was attended by 23 university rectors, 20 of which represent state universities and 3 representing foundation universities. Participants included HEC President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, HEC Executive Board Member Prof. Dr. Naci Gündoğan, Rector of Atatürk University Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı, and the rectors and vice rectors of twenty-two research universities.

HEC President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar stated in his address at the Research Universities Meeting that in order for universities to steadily climb international rankings, they must first conduct high-quality research and improve the quality of their publications. He further stated that academics' publication in journals with a high impact factor will have a positive effect on both the country's publication count and citation rates per publication.
Özvar drew attention to the disparity between the distribution of scientific articles published globally and in Turkey based on the impact value of the journals: "As of 2022, the global average for articles published in journals with a Q1 impact value is 45.98 percent; in Turkey, the corresponding figure stands at 29.49 percent. Again, the global average for the proportion of publications in fourth-quarter journals to total publications is 8.77 percent; in Turkey, this figure reaches a maximum of 21.65 percent. We should encourage our academics to publish in journals with a high impact factor, according to the data in this table.

"The Budget Source to be Transferred within the Scope of ADEP was Increased to 400 Million Liras"

HEC President Özvar: "Within the scope of the Research Universities Support Programme (ADEP), a budget of 100 million TL was transferred to 20 research universities for the first time in 2022 by the Presidential Strategy and Budget Presidency. This budget distribution was determined according to the annual performance scores of research universities. In 2023, the budget transferred was increased to 250 million liras. In the 2024 budget year, the budget resource to be transferred within the scope of ADEP was increased to 400 million liras. I would like to thank our esteemed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his appreciation on this issue and our Strategy and Budget President İbrahim Şenel for his special support."

"We will have universities that we will include in the Research University System"

Prof. Dr. Özvar: "In line with the requests from universities, as a result of the calculation made by our Executive Board based on the scholarship amounts paid to higher education students, it has been decided to increase the upper limit of the monthly scholarship amount to be paid to students who are assigned as scholarship students in scientific research projects carried out in higher education institutions from 2 thousand 550 liras to 6 thousand liras for master's students with thesis and from 3 thousand 825 liras to 9 thousand liras for doctoral students to be paid monthly from the project special account as of 2023. The decision on this issue will be communicated to all universities within the week. As HEC, we are closely monitoring not only the data of our research universities but also the annual publications, citations, projects and patents of all foundation-state universities. In the near future, we will share with the public the universities that have the potential to become research universities and put them into a monitoring process for the next 2 years. At the end of these 2 years, we will have new universities that we will include in this system, provided that the number of research universities remains the same."

"We are proud that our university has risen from A3 Category to A2 Category"

Commenting on the meeting and developments, Atatürk University Rector Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı stated that as a university, they made important moves in many areas from the number of publications to patents, from the number of projects to the accreditation process in a one-year period, and said that these studies had a significant effect on the increase in the performance ranking of Research Universities 2022.
Rector Çomaklı, who stated that Atatürk University has made important breakthroughs in terms of serving the society as well as scientific and research and development studies, said: "In the performance ranking divided into three categories as A1, A2 and A3 categories, our university has risen from A3 category to A2 category with a significant success and made us extremely proud. We endeavour to produce knowledge and use the knowledge produced for the benefit of humanity. As each member of Atatürk University, we will continue to work, produce, transform what is produced into benefit and maintain the success of our university with the awareness of this responsibility. I would like to thank the members of our university who are the architects of the rise of Atatürk University in both fields."
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIRECTORATE - 21.11.2023