Turkey voids 419 university enrollments over fraudulent foreign diplomas

The Turkish Ministry of Education (MEB) and the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) completed investigations into 450 applications for foreign‑high‑school equivalency certificates submitted between 2016 and 2020. They determined that 419 applicants had never left Turkey yet claimed remote diplomas, constituting fraud.

The ministries ordered the cancellation of those individuals’ university registrations and diplomas, affecting students in medicine, law, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering and other high‑demand fields. The Supreme Administrative Court (Danıştay) upheld the decision as lawful.

CHP politician Uğur Kalkan highlighted the regional breakdown – 83 cases in Bursa, 51 in Çorum, 34 in Ankara, 20 in Ordu and four in İzmir – and noted that even the Turkish embassy in Beijing had issued a forged equivalency. He said, "Liseyi Türkiye’de bitirdikleri halde, yurtdışından mezun olmuş gibi sahte bir belge ile Türkiye’nin dört bir yanındaki en iyi fakültelere yerleşiyorlar." The ruling is viewed as a precedent for stricter monitoring of equivalency procedures in Turkey.