GENDER DIFFERENCE IN INTERNAL EDUCATIONAL MIGRATION: DISTANCE ANALYSIS BETWEEN HOMETOWNS AND UNIVERSITIES OF ISTANBUL

Abstract

University education is one of the primary incentives for internal migration and most educational migration in Turkey is directed toward the city of İstanbul. In addition to vocational and academic achievement, university education also provides autonomy for young people by allowing them to live in different and perhaps distant areas from their families. In this article, we analyze students who have moved to İstanbul with regard to characteristics of gender and migratory distance in order to determine whether there is a gender difference in the realization of distant resettlement for education. To accomplish this, we use a database of students in the 2017-2018 academic year who applied for accommodation to the General Directorate of Credit and Hostels (KYK), which is the largest public institution that provides housing opportunities for university students in Turkey. This dataset includes 27,643 students, 49% of whom are female while 51% are male. Controlling for the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the students and their scores on the university entrance exam, we reveal that male students move greater distances to study in universities and they have more opportunities to migrate to İstanbul from settlements farther away than female students.