Education System in Turkey: Schools, Exams and Universities (2026)

Education System in Turkey: Schools, Exams and Universities (2026)

This guide describes the education system in Turkey as it stands on 11 November 2026. It draws on the statutes and regulations published on mevzuat.gov.tr, the Ministry of National Education (Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı, MEB) statistics for the 2025-26 school year released on 1 October 2026, and the pages of the Council of Higher Education (Yükseköğretim Kurulu, YÖK) and the Measuring, Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM). Readers will find the 12-year compulsory structure, how pre-school, primary, middle and high school work, how the high-school entry exam operates, how a foreign child is registered, how private and international schools are regulated, and how universities admit domestic and international students.

Every figure below is attributed to its source and dated. Where a rule changes each year, such as private-school fees or exam dates, the legal basis is given so the current number can be checked. The guide describes official rules and published statistics; it does not rank schools or universities, and it does not compare tuition prices between named institutions.

The Education System in Turkey at a Glance

Turkey runs a centrally regulated education system. MEB sets the national curriculum and supervises pre-school, primary, middle and secondary schools, both state and private. YÖK, created under Law No. 2547 of 1981, coordinates all universities. ÖSYM runs the national selection exams, and the Presidency of Migration Management (Göç İdaresi Başkanlığı) under the Ministry of the Interior issues the residence permits that foreign families need. Law No. 1739 on National Education (1973) is the framework statute, and Law No. 222 on Primary Education and Training (1961) fixes the compulsory stages.

Compulsory schooling lasts 12 years and is split into three blocks of four years. The table summarises the stages, the ages that official sources use and the legal basis. Ages are typical ones; the exact entry cut-off is explained in the primary-school section.

Two gates sit between the stages. After middle school, pupils enter high school either by address-based placement or, for schools that admit by exam score, through the central exam known as LGS. After high school, university places are allocated through the YKS exam run by ÖSYM. Both gates are described below with the 2026 dates.

How the Education System in Turkey Is Structured: the 4+4+4 Laws

The 4+4+4 structure of the education system in Turkey comes from Law No. 6287 of 30 March 2012. That law rewrote Article 7 of Law No. 222, which now defines primary education (ilköğretim) as a national education institution made up of a four-year compulsory primary school and a four-year compulsory middle school. Article 26 of Law No. 1739, in the wording of Law No. 6764 of 2 December 2016, describes secondary education as compulsory four-year formal or non-formal general, vocational and technical instruction built on primary education. Together the three blocks give the 12 compulsory years that the Study in Türkiye portal of YÖK also reports.

Article 3 of Law No. 222, as amended by Law No. 7180 of 27 June 2019, states that the compulsory primary-education age covers children aged 6 to 14, and that first-grade registration is made for children who complete 72 months on 31 December of the registration year, with early starts and deferrals regulated by regulation. Article 2 of the same law says primary education is compulsory and free in state schools. Article 4 of Law No. 1739 requires that educational institutions operate without discrimination on grounds of language, race, sex, disability or religion, while Article 7 of that law phrases the right to primary education as a right of every Turkish citizen; the admission of foreign nationals is therefore handled in the ministry regulations covered in the registration section below.

The statutory text can be debated without changing. On 17 July 2025, Daily Sabah, citing Anadolu Agency, reported that Education Minister Yusuf Tekin said the ministry was evaluating proposals on the structure and length of compulsory education, noting that academics, civil society and professional bodies hold different views, and that any change would have to meet students’ needs and the legal framework. The statutes read on mevzuat.gov.tr on 11 November 2026 still contain the 4+4 wording in Law No. 222 art. 7 and the four-year secondary stage in Law No. 1739 art. 26.

Official Numbers for the 2025-26 School Year

MEB announced its formal-education statistics for 2025-26 on 1 October 2026, the most recent official count of the education system in Turkey. According to that release, as reported by the DHA news agency, 17,704,308 pupils attended formal education from pre-school to the end of high school: 9,089,093 boys and 8,615,215 girls. The statistics portal of MEB’s Strategy Development Presidency lists the same 2025-26 school year as its current data set. The table shows how the pupils and schools divide across the levels.

The shares are calculated here from MEB’s counts (for example, 5,408,899 divided by 17,704,308 gives 30.55%). The 75,012 schools break down into 59,914 state schools, 15,094 private schools and 4 open-education schools. Ownership matters for the cost of schooling, so the next table sets out students, schools and classrooms by ownership.

MEB reports 1,211,799 teachers in total, of whom 1,170,320 work in formal education institutions and 41,479 in non-formal education and other units; 1,067,218 teach in the state sector and 144,581 in the private sector. Private schools therefore hold about one fifth of all schools but fewer than one tenth of pupils; dividing MEB’s counts gives an average of about 98 pupils per private school against about 253 per state school. The release also gives class-size and enrolment indicators.

Other items in the same release: 345,112 pupils received scholarships; 765,728 primary and secondary pupils used school transport; and 2,852 boarding houses accommodated about half a million pupils. Among secondary pupils, 3,046,666 attended general high schools, 1,736,473 attended vocational and technical programmes and 464,613 attended Anadolu imam-hatip high schools. MEB states that the vocational and technical share of secondary education rose from 37.56% in 2024-25 to 39.51% in 2025-26, with vocational enrolment moving from 1,681,100 to 1,736,473.

Pre-School Education (Okul Öncesi)

Pre-school is optional. Article 19 of Law No. 1739 defines it as the education of children who have not yet reached compulsory age and states that it is voluntary, and Article 20 lists its aims, which include supporting physical, mental and emotional development, preparing children for primary school and helping them speak Turkish correctly. Pre-school institutions can be independent kindergartens (anaokulu), nursery classes attached to a primary school (ana sınıfı) or practice classes attached to other schools.

Registration rules sit in Article 11(5) of the MEB pre-school and primary regulation. Children aged 57 to 68 months at the end of September of the registration year are registered in kindergartens, nursery classes and practice classes. Once children living in the school’s catchment who will start primary school the following year have been registered, a school with space may also take children aged 36 to 56 months (45 to 56 months for nursery classes). Children aged 69 to 71 months whose primary-school entry was deferred by a year and who had no pre-school the year before receive priority. When applications exceed places, a draw is held in front of parents. In districts without a state kindergarten, an amendment published in the Official Gazette of 28 July 2026 (No. 33323) allows children aged 36 to 68 months to share one nursery class and allows a new class to open when enough children aged 36 to 44 months apply.

The same amendment states that new registrations in pre-school and primary institutions start in July and are made through the e-Okul system on the basis of the home address in the national address database. Private pre-schools register children, set quotas and set fees under the private institutions legislation described later in this guide. Attendance is expected daily; if a child is absent for five consecutive days without an excuse, the parent is notified by e-mail or text message, and after 10 days the school sends a written warning (Article 18(2)).

MEB counts 1,739,723 children in 18,636 pre-school schools in 2025-26 and a net enrolment rate of 84.14% for five-year-olds. For families arriving with babies and toddlers, the separate guide on the birth of a foreign child in Turkey explains registration and documents for a child born in the country.

Primary and Middle School (İlkokul and Ortaokul)

Primary school covers grades 1 to 4 and middle school grades 5 to 8; both are compulsory and free of tuition in state schools. Under Article 11(6) of the MEB regulation, children who have completed 69 months by the end of September of the registration year are registered in grade 1. Children aged 66, 67 or 68 months are registered if the parent asks in writing. Children aged 69, 70 or 71 months may, at the parent’s written request, be directed to pre-school or have registration deferred by one year. The worked examples below apply that rule to children registering in July 2026 for the 2026-27 school year, counting months completed on 30 September 2026.

The class and the teacher are no longer chosen by the school. Since an amendment published on 14 October 2023, the classes and the class teachers of pupils registered to primary school are determined by a draw in e-Okul, and the same draw method applies to middle-school classes under the wording amended on 28 July 2026. A change of class is possible once in a school year on the parent’s written request, with a reasoned opinion from the school guidance service. Middle-school registration follows the home address in the national address database; registration in an imam-hatip middle school (imam-hatip ortaokulu) is made on the parent’s application to that school.

In primary school the class teacher teaches all subjects, with one stated exception. After the July 2026 amendment, foreign-language and religious culture and moral knowledge lessons are taught by subject teachers, and so are subjects in primary schools that run a different programme. Article 25 of Law No. 1739 adds that middle schools offer elective courses that follow pupils’ abilities and preferences, and that the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet are available as optional elective courses in middle and high schools.

Curricula are prepared by MEB’s Board of Education and Discipline (Talim ve Terbiye Kurulu Başkanlığı). The board’s website describes current textbooks and programmes as being prepared in line with the Türkiye Century Maarif Model (Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Modeli) and the current teaching programmes. Class sizes in 2025-26 averaged 19 pupils per classroom in primary schools and 25 in middle schools, according to MEB.

Pupils who return to Turkey from abroad or enter without school records are placed by equivalence. Under Articles 13 and 14 of the regulation, a primary-age pupil with documents is placed under the MEB Equivalence Regulation (published 9 July 2024, No. 32597), and a pupil without documents is placed by a commission of a branch manager, a primary-school head, two class teachers and a guidance teacher, which considers age and the parent’s declaration; no level exam is held for primary pupils. Middle-school-age pupils are handled under the Equivalence Regulation.

High School, the LGS Exam and School Types

High school (lise) lasts four years in most programmes. Article 20 of the MEB secondary regulation lists five ways pupils move from middle school to a high school: by central exam score; by preference among schools inside their registration area; by preference among boarding schools outside that area; by central exam score together with a talent exam; and by a talent exam alone. The ministry publishes the schools, programmes and quotas each year in a transition, preference and placement guide, and the schools that admit by exam score are those the ministry designates under the regulation.

The central exam is commonly called LGS (Liselere Geçiş Sistemi). The secondary regulation defines the middle-school achievement score (OBP) as the arithmetic mean of the year-end scores of grades 6, 7 and 8; Article 20(3)(d) uses it together with a talent-exam score for fine arts and sports high schools and for certain imam-hatip programmes. Daily Sabah, reporting the end of the 2025-26 school year, said the 2026 LGS was held on 13 June 2026 and that more than one million pupils took part. Pupils who do not take or do not need the exam are placed in schools in their registration area according to preference and quota.

Language of instruction is Turkish. Article 10 of the secondary regulation allows an exception: in central-exam schools that have a preparatory class, mathematics and science may be taught in the first foreign language if a suitable teacher is available and at least 10 pupils ask for it, and private institutions and schools running an international programme are not subject to the 10-pupil minimum. The same article allows suitable secondary schools to run an international programme, defined as the International Baccalaureate, the Advanced Placement programme, the International General Certificate of Secondary Education or similar; apart from lessons that must be taught in Turkish, those schools teach in the language the programme requires. Rules for such programmes are set by a ministry directive.

Attendance matters for promotion. Article 36 of the regulation requires attendance. A pupil whose unexcused absences exceed 10 days, or whose total absences exceed 30 days, is considered unsuccessful regardless of grades and the family is notified in writing. The limits are higher in listed cases: 40 total days for pupils who lost a first-degree relative, 60 for pupils with controlled long-term illness or in protection, and 70 for pupils in full-time inclusion education or in special-education vocational high schools; unexcused absence may not exceed 10 days in the first two groups or 20 days in the last (Article 36(5)).

The School Year, Attendance and e-Okul

The school calendar is set annually by MEB. According to Daily Sabah’s report on the close of 2025-26, the 2025-26 year began on 8 September 2025, the second term started on 2 February 2026 and ended on 26 June 2026, and the 2026-27 year began on 14 September 2026. In practice, lessons run from mid-September to late June, with a break between the two terms.

Attendance at primary and middle school is compulsory. Under Article 18(3) of the MEB regulation, absence is recorded daily in e-Okul; a pupil who misses the whole day is marked as a full day absent and partial absences count as half a day. Parents are notified when unexcused absence reaches 5, 10 and 15 days, and for pupils with controlled long-term illness, full-time inclusion pupils and pupils under protection orders the notification is repeated at 30 days. Parents have three working days after the absence to submit an excuse or a written declaration, and the school may extend that to 20 working days in compulsory cases. A pupil can receive up to 15 days of permission in a school year on a valid excuse and the parent’s application. Children of seasonal agricultural workers and of migratory families are covered by separate provisions in the same article.

e-Okul is the electronic school administration system through which registration, class lists, grades and absence are processed. The regulation requires the school to keep a student file in e-Okul for each pupil, and the class teacher in primary school and the guidance teacher in middle school enter the file data.

Registering a Foreign Child in a State School

Foreign families entering the education system in Turkey meet two sets of conditions: those of the school, and those of the child’s legal stay. For primary and middle school-age children, Article 11(3) of the pre-school and primary regulation, in the wording published in the Official Gazette of 28 July 2026, says that a foreign child who holds an identity number obtained through a document issued by the Ministry of the Interior is registered on the basis of the details on that identity document and the home address in the national address database. If a child’s application for Turkish citizenship is still in progress, the Turkish identity number is updated in e-Okul once it is issued. The regulation does not list visa categories for these ages; the permit side is governed by the immigration law described below.

For high school, Article 29 of the secondary regulation sets out conditions in a list. The table summarises Article 29(1).

Article 29(2) adds that the school’s own admission conditions are applied in addition. Article 29(3) says that matters the regulation does not cover fall under the Regulation on the Education of Migrant Workers’ Children (Official Gazette of 14 November 2002, No. 24936) and the MEB Equivalence Regulation. For pupils arriving from abroad, a placement and transfer commission under Article 29(4) assigns them to schools according to admission conditions, equivalence documents and programme compatibility. A pupil with no central-exam score is placed, in a balanced way, in schools within the registration area that admit by preference or in vocational education centres; a pupil with a central-exam score is placed in the school the score allows, without a quota requirement.

A pupil without a guardian in Turkey is covered by Article 17(4) of the pre-school and primary regulation: the provincial or district education directorate, with the knowledge of the police, appoints a school administrator as guardian for education matters only. Where documents are missing, the class level is set by the commission described in the equivalence rules above.

The school registration rules sit alongside the immigration side of the move. Article 38 of Law No. 6458 allows a student residence permit for primary and secondary pupils whose care and expenses are undertaken by a natural or legal person, with the consent of parents or legal guardians, in one-year periods that may be extended. That permit does not give the pupil’s parents or other relatives any right to a residence permit of their own (Article 38(3)). How parents obtain and renew permits is covered in the guides on the residence permit in Turkey, extending a residence permit and the rules for staying in Turkey as a foreigner. The immunisation context for children is outlined in the guide on vaccinations in Turkey.

Families also ask which city to base the move around. MEB publishes education statistics by province, and the guides on the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey and cities for digital nomads cover living costs, which are outside the scope of this education guide.

Private Schools and Fee Rules

Private education is governed by Law No. 5580 on Private Education Institutions (2007) and the MEB Regulation on Private Education Institutions. In 2025-26 MEB counts 15,094 private schools and 1,485,021 private-school pupils, which is 8.39% of formal enrolment. Article 13 of Law No. 5580 requires each institution to set its tuition and other fees every year and announce them between January and May, and to teach at least 3% of its pupils free of charge, a share that the ministry can raise to 10%. It also provides that the number of foreign pupils admitted to a school cannot exceed 30% of the number of Turkish-national pupils attending it.

The regulation was tightened in 2025. Article 53 states that private schools may not charge anything under the name of textbooks (added by the Official Gazette of 3 January 2025, No. 32771), and the Official Gazette of 5 September 2025 (No. 33008) rewrote the annual cap. For fees announced in 2026 for the 2026-27 school year, the previous year in the formula is 2025. The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (TCMB) publishes the two indices: annual consumer price inflation of 30.89% for December 2025, and annual domestic producer price inflation of 27.67% for December 2025.

As a worked illustration with a round figure that is not any school’s real price, a continuing pupil whose contract fee is TRY 100,000 could see an announced fee of at most TRY 130,744 (100,000 x 1.3074), and a first-grade fee set against a previous TRY 100,000 for that grade could reach at most TRY 143,920 (100,000 x 1.4392). These are ceilings calculated from the regulation’s formula and the TCMB figures above, not quoted school prices.

Other fee rules protect families. A school cannot charge more than its announced fee but may register a pupil below it (Article 54(1)(d)); it cannot collect fees before announcing them (Article 54(1)(c)); it cannot take payments under any other name, including donations, apart from those the regulation lists (Article 54(1)(b)); and it must enter the announcement into the ministry’s MEBBİS system and post a printout where parents can see it. A school that does not announce in time keeps the previous year’s fee (Article 54(2)).

International Schools (Milletlerarası Okullar)

Turkish law separates three kinds of private school with a foreign element. International private institutions (milletlerarası özel öğretim kurumları), foreign schools (yabancı okullar) and minority schools (azınlık okulları) are listed in Article 5 of Law No. 5580, and each has its own rules.

For international institutions that teach another country’s programme, Article 5(1)(n) of the regulation requires an opening document from the education authority of that country, certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, showing that the programme is permitted. Article 49 makes Turkish the language of instruction in private institutions but exempts international institutions attended by foreign children. Under Article 46, a school that uses a non-Turkish programme also teaches Turkish language and Turkish history lessons under a ministry-approved weekly timetable, and international diploma and certificate programmes and the timetables built around them are used only after ministry approval. The 2025 amendment also introduced MOBİS, an electronic information system in which international schools process their education, teaching and management transactions.

One consequence follows from Law No. 5580: international schools are a route for foreign nationals, while Turkish citizens’ children attend state schools or ordinary private schools that follow the Turkish curriculum, with the optional programmes mentioned above. The transition clause for pupils who acquire citizenship is in Article 5(a)(3). The rules on how citizenship is acquired are covered in the guides on the procedure for obtaining citizenship by investment, how to obtain Turkish citizenship and what Turkish citizenship provides.

Higher Education in the Education System in Turkey: YÖK and the Degrees

Since the reform under Law No. 2547 in 1981, all higher education institutions are tied to YÖK and carry the title of university; the first non-profit foundation university began teaching in 1986. According to the YÖK Study in Türkiye portal, the system follows the Bologna three-cycle model. Article 38 of Law No. 1739 states that higher education is paid, and that the costs of successful students without means are to be met through scholarships, loans and similar tools. YÖK’s university lists, counted on 11 November 2026, show 129 state universities, 74 foundation universities and 4 foundation vocational schools, with a further 16 universities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus listed separately; the Study in Türkiye portal describes nearly 45,000 degree programmes and more than 7 million students.

Tuition differs by institution type. The portal states that tuition at state universities is set by presidential decree according to discipline and duration, while foundation universities’ boards of trustees decide their own fees, and both types award scholarships to part of each intake. Article 46 of Law No. 2547 sets the legal frame: students pay a student contribution (öğrenci katkı payı) per term in first teaching (birinci öğretim), and a tuition fee (öğrenim ücreti) in second teaching and distance education, while foreign nationals pay a tuition fee each term without regard to first or second teaching. Contribution and tuition amounts are set by the President each year by the end of June, and the minimum tuition for foreign students is fixed by presidential decision.

Domestic candidates enter through YKS (Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı). ÖSYM announced that the 2026 YKS would be held on 20 and 21 June 2026, with the basic proficiency test (TYT) on 20 June and the field proficiency tests (AYT) and foreign language test (YDT) on 21 June, and applications between 6 February and 2 March 2026. Results came out on 21 July 2026, placement results on 18 August 2026 and supplementary placement results on 28 September 2026. ÖSYM’s placement statistics show 2,187,747 candidates with a calculated placement score, 1,279,439 who applied for placement and 730,854 who were placed, including 89,396 in open education.

These figures come from ÖSYM’s 2026-YKS placement tables for on-campus programmes; the table excludes open-education places and places reserved for Northern Cyprus nationals, and universities based in Northern Cyprus or abroad add a further 19,235 places of which 12,200 were filled. The shares are calculated here: for example, 479,392 placed divided by 481,684 state places gives 99.52% for state universities as a whole, and 140,374 divided by 176,080 gives 79.72% for foundation universities.

International Students at Turkish Universities

Article 45(f) of Law No. 2547 gives YÖK the power to set how foreign nationals and students who completed all secondary education abroad are admitted. Under that rule, the portal explains, YÖK publishes admission quotas of state and foundation universities for international students each year, and universities accept applications for those quotas using exams they determine, such as TR-YÖS, YÖS, Abitur, SAT or IB. Some universities that teach fine arts, music and sport also run a talent exam. Applicants apply directly to the university of their choice, and the university makes the selection.

TR-YÖS, the Türkiye Yurt Dışından Öğrenci Kabul Sınavı, is run by ÖSYM twice a year in Turkish, German, Arabic, French, English and Russian, at centres in Turkey and abroad. The portal states that knowledge of Turkish is not a condition for taking it, because Turkish level is assessed under each university’s own requirements. In 2026 ÖSYM scheduled TR-YÖS/1 for 12 April 2026, with applications from 14 January to 3 February 2026, and TR-YÖS/2 was held on 11 October 2026 with results published on 5 November 2026. The older YÖS exams are still organised by some foundation universities, which announce their own results.

Work rights are narrower than many applicants assume. The portal states that a student residence permit does not by itself cover work; a work permit has to be obtained first. Article 41 of Law No. 6458 allows full-time associate, bachelor, master’s and doctoral students to work with a work permit, and for associate and bachelor students the right starts after the first year. Compulsory or elective internships that belong to the programme do not require a work permit, according to the portal. Foreign graduates who continue in the education system in Turkey as master’s or doctoral students stay within the same permit framework.

Student Residence Permits

Article 38 of Law No. 6458 sets the permit categories. Anyone who will study for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree at a higher education institution in Turkey receives a student residence permit. For primary and secondary pupils the permit is discretionary and tied to the care-and-expense arrangement described above. If the study period is shorter than a year, the permit cannot exceed it. Public bodies that bring foreign students to Turkey can obtain permits lasting the whole study period (Article 38(5)).

Article 39 lists three conditions: submitting the information and documents listed in Article 38, not being among the foreigners refused entry under Article 7, and giving the address in Turkey. Article 40 says the permit is refused, cancelled or not extended when conditions disappear, when evidence shows the studies cannot continue, when the permit is used for another purpose, or when an effective deportation order or entry ban exists against the person. The Presidency of Migration Management keeps a page of the documents required for student permit applications, and the YÖK portal links to it.

Part of the cost is set by law rather than by the university: Article 46 of Law No. 2547 means foreign nationals always pay a tuition fee each term, so the lower contribution levels that apply to citizens in first teaching do not apply to them. The fee sentence in Article 46 refers to foreign-national students, so a student who holds Turkish citizenship is not covered by it, and Article 5(a)(3) of Law No. 5580 covers the narrower case of an international-school pupil who acquires citizenship mid-level.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many years of schooling are compulsory in Turkey?

Twelve, in three blocks of four years: primary school (grades 1 to 4), middle school (grades 5 to 8) and high school (grades 9 to 12). The basis is Law No. 222 art. 7, introduced by Law No. 6287 of 30 March 2012, and Law No. 1739 art. 26 for the secondary stage. The minister said in July 2025 that proposals on compulsory education were being evaluated, but the statutes read on 11 November 2026 still contain the 12-year structure of the education system in Turkey.

At what age does a child start primary school?

Children who have completed 69 months by the end of September of the registration year are registered in grade 1. Children aged 66 to 68 months can be registered if the parent asks in writing, and children aged 69 to 71 months can be referred to pre-school or deferred for a year at the parent’s written request (pre-school and primary regulation, Article 11(6)).

Is pre-school compulsory?

No. Article 19 of Law No. 1739 makes pre-school voluntary, so it sits outside the compulsory part of the education system in Turkey. MEB’s 2025-26 data show 1,739,723 children in pre-school and a net enrolment rate of 84.14% for five-year-olds.

What does a foreign child need to be registered at a state school?

For primary and middle school ages, the child is registered on the identity number obtained through a Ministry of the Interior document and the home address in the national address database (Article 11(3), as amended 28 July 2026). For high school, Article 29 of the secondary regulation lists a passport and student visa, or, for children of foreigners permitted to work and reside, proof of the parent’s work permit or a residence permit of at least six months. The school’s own admission conditions also apply. Individual cases depend on nationality, permit type and the school.

Are state schools free?

Within the education system in Turkey, Article 2 of Law No. 222 states that primary education is compulsory and free in state schools, and the YÖK portal describes primary, middle and secondary education as free at state schools. Higher education is paid under Article 38 of Law No. 1739.

Can Turkish citizens’ children attend international schools?

Under Article 5(a)(1) of Law No. 5580, international private institutions, a separate branch of the education system in Turkey, are for foreign-national pupils only. A pupil who acquires Turkish citizenship while enrolled may continue until the end of the level, or move to another international institution that applies the same programme (Article 5(a)(3)).

How much can a private school raise its fees?

Under Article 53 of the MEB private institutions regulation as amended on 5 September 2025, continuing pupils’ fees may rise by at most [(December producer-price inflation + December consumer-price inflation) / 2] x 1.05, and fees for the first grade of a new level by at most the same average x 1.5. With TCMB’s December 2025 figures of 27.67% and 30.89%, that is 30.74% and 43.92%. Schools announce fees between January and the end of May and cannot charge more than the announced figure.

What is the LGS?

In the education system in Turkey, LGS is the central exam used to place pupils in high schools that admit by exam score. Daily Sabah, reporting on the 2025-26 school year, said it was held on 13 June 2026 with more than one million pupils. Other pupils are placed by address and preference within their registration area.

Which exam do international applicants take for a Turkish university?

For university entry in the education system in Turkey, universities set their own accepted exams from a list that includes TR-YÖS, YÖS, Abitur, SAT and IB. TR-YÖS is run by ÖSYM twice a year; in 2026 it was held on 12 April and 11 October. The quotas for international students are published by YÖK every year.

Does a student residence permit allow a foreign student to work?

Not on its own. Under Article 41 of Law No. 6458, full-time students may work with a work permit, and associate and bachelor students gain that right after the first year. Internships required by the programme do not need a work permit, according to the Study in Türkiye portal.

Last checked: 11 November 2026. Sources: laws and regulations on Law 222, Law 1739, Law 5580, Law 2547, Law 6458, the MEB pre-school and primary regulation, secondary regulation and private institutions regulation; MEB 2025-26 formal education statistics as reported by DHA and the MEB statistics portal; MEB Board of Education; Study in Türkiye (YÖK) general structure, TR-YÖS questions, visa and residence and work; YÖK university lists; ÖSYM 2026-YKS announcement, 2026-YKS placement figures and TR-YÖS/2 results; TCMB consumer prices and producer prices; Daily Sabah on the 2025-26 school year and on compulsory schooling; Presidency of Migration Management student residence permit documents.