Turkey Council of State rules on student disciplinary records

The Council of State (Danıştay) has ruled in favor of a law student seeking to have a disciplinary penalty for cheating removed from their permanent record. The case originated in 2019 when a law student at a foundation university in Istanbul received a warning for cheating.

After the university and the Council of Ombudsman (KDK) failed to ensure the removal of the penalty, the student appealed to the Council of State. The 8th Chamber of the Council of State found that current legislation lacks clear provisions regarding how long student disciplinary penalties should be kept in records, under what conditions, and when they should be erased.

The court noted that students are being left “unprotected” due to this regulatory gap. The ruling emphasized that there must be a reasonable balance between a student's action and the sanction applied, stating that it is neither understandable nor acceptable for disciplinary penalties resulting from momentary mistakes to be stored in student files for nearly a lifetime.