Turkey education hub for int'l students: Erdogan

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it is one of his administration's key goals to make Turkey a leading education hub for visiting students.

Speaking at a dinner in New York hosted by the Turken Foundation late Sunday, Erdogan said he wants to see Turkey as one of the top five destinations for international students.

Established in 2014 in the U.S by Turkey’s two major educational foundations, Turken assists eligible Muslim students by means of housing, scholarship and other cultural programs to improve their educational experience in the U.S.

"We have made Turkey an education hub for the students from friendly and brotherly regions," Erdogan said and added: "We have 168 thousand visiting students in Turkey studying either with the Turkiye Scholarships [a program offered by Turkey’s Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities] or by their own means".

"Our goal is to raise the number of visiting students in Turkey to 350 thousand and thus to be among the top five countries hosting the largest number of visiting students in the world," he stressed.

The Turkish president is in New York to attend the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.