Baltimore on the Bosphorus? The Laureate Connection. It might seem a bit of a stretch to connect Baltimore to the city of Istanbul where historians say the Christian Church began in 325 AD in Constantinople with the Nicene Creed. There are few similarities between Baltimore and this ancient city of more than 10 million people.

But surprisingly, there is a Baltimore connection with Istanbul, and it runs through the headquarters of Baltimore based Laureate Education, Inc. Laureate has a joint venture with Istanbul’s Bilgi University, one of Turkey’s fastest growing private universities.

Bilgi University is Laureate’s stake in a country of more than 70 million people with a rapidly growing population. With an average age of about 26, Turkey is the youngest country in the European Community.

Only ten years old, Bilgi University has ten thousand students that are divided between two modern facilities - more a series of interconnected buildings than a college campus. One of Bilgi’s missions is to combine higher education with social responsibility. It built its undergraduate facility just a few years ago in an area that was previously a slum. Now the area is in the midst of being revitalized with cafés and shops that cater to the students. The Johns Hopkins medical complex in east Baltimore could learn something from Bilgi about how a university can transform a neighborhood.

Bilgi’s modern and functional buildings are a far cry from our state’s large College Park campus. For one thing, there are no multi-million dollar athletic facilities; in fact, there are no sports teams. Bilgi is a commuter school: think University of Baltimore, not College Park. Recognizing the need to educate its students to compete in the global economy, all coursework and classes at Bilgi University are conducted in English. Bilgi is not unique in Turkey in this regard; surprisingly, there are ten Turkish universities that also conduct classes in English.

Bilgi targets students from middle class backgrounds, but the cost of tuition at around $14,000 a year is hardly middle class in a country where the average income is about $5,000. There are no student loans, but the government mandates that tuition scholarships be awarded to 10 percent of its students.

Laureate and Bilgi want to double the size of the university to 20,000 students in five years, and has ambitious plans to expand campuses throughout Turkey and set up similar universities in the Middle East, Russia and countries like Kazakhstan.

The Laureate story in Turkey stands in sharp contrast to the depressing news from the Middle East. Turkey is modernizing at a fast pace and as its middle class grows, Laureate is helping to meet the growing demand for higher education for young people who want to learn in English. This is a hopeful sign for Turkey, and for Laureate.

Labels: Baltimore, education, Johns Hopkins, Laureate

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