A survey conducted by master's degree students at Turkey’s Akdeniz University (AKDÜ) shows that one-fifth of university students have to work to make a living.
As reported by Dilan Esen from BirGün daily, the survey also shows that students are experiencing difficulties in meeting their basic needs such as nutrition, housing, and transportation. The students say they eat pasta to make a living.
The survey conducted in order to determine the poverty and the availability of nutrition, housing, transportation and education facilities the students experience in the current economic conditions shows that one-fifth of the students have to work to live.
In face-to-face interviews and online surveys with the students, 61.2 percent of the students state that they cannot deal with their financial problems, while the rest state that they work or get family support while attending school.
Participant students in the survey state that they try to overcome their financial difficulties by “Eating pasta, not going out, trying to find a job and clearing the debts” and continue by saying “I usually can’t fight with it, I’m afraid I’ll have to drop out soon.”
According to recent data, it was reported earlier that the number of students who dropped out of university in the 2017-2018 year exceeded 408 thousand with an increase of 92.2 percent compared to the previous year.
78.4 percent of the students who participated in the survey stated that they were living with 1000 TL (183 USD) and below, 93.8 percent said that they did not receive any scholarships or funds from any institution. Only 1.1 percent of the students can get a scholarship of 300 TL (55 USD) or more.
Among the students who participated in the survey:
21.2% are working.
4% have an income above 1000 TL.
64.8% can spare less than 100 TL in their education costs.
43.9% can spare less than 50 TL in their transportation budget (This figure equals to one vehicle per day in Antalya Transportation Price Lists.)
23.1% state that they cannot get family support, 34.8% state they can get partial support.
56% cannot have a budget to go to cultural/art/entertainment activities.
98.2% state that state support is insufficient. They demand increased support for education.
73% spend more than 250 TL per month which was set by the Credit and Dormitories Agency (KYK).
82.8% state that they have difficulties to make a living.
