Evaluation of universities in the aegean region in the context of financial autonomy

The financing of higher education globally is listed under three main headings: public, private, and mixed financing. In state universities in Turkey, mixed financing is applied with a focus on public financing. However, although the public financing-heavy method is applied both in the world and in our country, it has been discussed for years that this situation has a negative effect on the financial autonomy of universities. The study aims to examine the meaning of autonomy for universities, which are higher education institutions, examine the income realizations of state universities, especially in the context of financial autonomy, and reveal their actual situations. The study sample consists of twelve universities in the Aegean Region. In the study, the final accounts of the special budgets of the universities in the Aegean Region within the scope of the central government budget law for the years 2008- 2021, showing the final income realizations, were examined and analyzed. In this context, the budget revenues of the final account table sections of the fourteen-year final accounts of the universities in the Aegean Region were collected, classified, and interpreted under the two main headings of own revenues and treasury aid revenues and in detail according to income codes. In the study, it was accepted that the incomes of treasury aid, which are the incomes provided by the central administration directly to the universities, have a decreasing effect on financial autonomy; on the other hand, the incomes recorded as own income in the budgets of higher education institutions have an increasing effect on financial autonomy. In this context, the ratio of one's income to the total of treasury aid and one own income was evaluated as the degree of financial autonomy, and financial autonomy was considered in terms of one's income. As a result of the evaluations made on a university basis, it was observed that the income of six universities was better than the average rate of 13.92%, while the remaining six universities were below the average rate. However, when the change in the realization of own income over the years was analyzed, it was seen that the share of own income in the total income of eleven universities, except İzmir Yüksek Teknoloji University, decreased from 2008 to 2021, These universities became increasingly dependent on the treasury and had a negative course in terms of financial autonomy.