Comparison of the Universities in Turkey with Multidimensional Scaling Analysis

Higher education institutions are among the keystones of a country. Besides being the primary institutions of a country that expand overseas, universities are the most important organizations representing it at the international level. It is an undeniable fact that a university benefits the country in which it is located in many ways. It is crucial to examine the performances of universities, which are among the major drivers of global change. As such, the positions of the Turkish universities during the 2008–2009 and 2018–2019 periods were examined by multidimensional scaling analysis. Especially the change in the positions of the recently-opened universities and their proximity or distance to the established universities constitute the primary focus of this study. The universities in Turkey were analyzed through multidimensional scaling analysis by using the variables of the number of students at associate and undergraduate level, the number of academic staff, the number of doctoral students, the total number of publications, and the number of graduate students. No significant difference was found between the positions of the universities that were opened under the policy of “one university for each city”.