Implementation of transition to the metaverse in higher education institutions: A study on universities in Turkey

Education, as one of the oldest and most important issues in human history, appears in every aspect of our lives. The most important stage of education, which has become the most important part of human life by changing and developing in all kinds of innovations, is undoubtedly the innovations in higher education. Recently, the metaverse and developing technologies have attracted the attention of higher education institutions that produce science as well as affect every sector. The metaverse emerges as a universe to be established in 3D environments, in short, a new future, a new language, an unreal but very close to reality, dreams come true, by enabling unlimited human needs to get rid of limited possibilities. Since the future of a country is shaped by a successful education system and the metaverse also expresses a new lot, education, and metaverse that complement each other have been examined in detail in terms of higher education institutions. Based on this information, in this study, after examining the higher education institutions in Turkey, the documents shared by the universities that transitioned to the fictional universe and the relevant evidence on their website to determine the perceptions of the students in the universities that give lectures about the courses and to determine the level of readiness for new technologies, 24 universities in Turkey were selected. The data collected by applying a questionnaire to 295 students were analyzed with the "SPSS 29.0" program. As a result of the analysis, students' perception of the metaverse was found to be significant according to gender; It was concluded that the perception of technology, digitalization, society, and lifestyle did not significantly differ. It was determined that while students' perception of the metaverse, technology, digitalization, and lifestyle showed a significant difference according to age, their social perception did not show a significant difference. Moreover, a significant difference was observed in the metaverse, technology, digitalization, and social and lifestyle perceptions of the students according to their educational status. In addition, it was concluded that the student's perception of metaverse, technology, and digitalization showed a significant difference according to the university they were studying, while the perception of society and lifestyle did not show a significant difference. Keywords: Higher education institutions, metaverse, technology, perceptions of students, universities in Turkey