Scholarship programs at non-profit private universities in Turkey and equality of opportunity in higher education

In terms of equality or inequality of opportunity, it is an important question of debate of who benefits from higher education opportunities. In this regard, to understand whether or not non-profit private universities in Turkey have a functional and comprehensive scholarship system, it is particularly important to explore the socio-economic profile of students. With its main arguments, this thesis aims to reveal socioeconomic background as a determinant of access to higher education and tries to express that non-profit private universities can play an important role in increasing equality of opportunity in higher education with suitable policies. Within this context, the type of schools, university programs and parents' occupations of students accepted in the scholarship and fee-paying programs of five non-profit private universities owned by professional organizations have been analyzed. By using the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) in the study, the similarities and differences of the students' socio-economic status have been demonstrated. Research findings show that the children of relatively low-income families do not sufficiently benefit from the scholarship programs of non-profit private universities in Turkey. In other words, it was found that students who get a seat in the scholarship programs of non-profit private universities already come from advantageous families; and therefore it is necessary to rediscuss the purpose and design of these scholarship programs. Keywords: equality of opportunity, non-profit private universities, higher education, socio-economic inequality