# Turkey's minister touts a million dorm beds; opposition says 4,000-lira student grant leaves 65 lira a day

Asked what the 2027 student grant will be, Youth and Sports Minister Osman Aşkın Bak told the budget committee it would be announced, but 'not today.'

By 567 Politics staff · 567politics
Published: 2026-11-10T17:18:32.058761Z
Updated: 2026-11-10T17:19:12.675641Z
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Turkey's youth and sports minister, Osman Aşkın Bak, told parliament's budget committee on Tuesday that the state now supports more than 1.5 million university students with monthly grants or loans and has built dormitories with more than a million beds. Opposition lawmakers answered that the main grant, 4,000 lira a month for undergraduates, no longer covers even basic needs, and that dormitory rooms have become crowded wards. When asked how much the grant will be next year, Bak said only that it would be announced. "Not today," he said.

The exchange came as the Plan and Budget Committee, chaired by AKP lawmaker Mehmet Muş, worked through the ministry's 2027 budget. The amount of the 2027 grant is one of the most closely watched figures for students and families in a country where annual consumer inflation was 29.77% in October, as reported in [567 Politics' coverage of the October inflation data](/news/turkey-october-inflation-29-77-tuik-enag-simsek-november-2026).

## The minister's numbers

The ministry's 2027 budget is projected at 399.7 billion lira, Bak told the committee, according to a detailed account by the [ANKA news agency](https://ankahaber.net/haber/tbmm-plan-ve-butce-komisyonu-bakan-bak-1-milyon-518-bin-166-ogrenciye-burs-ve-ogrenim-kredisi-destegi-sagliyoruz-181828c9). By far the largest share, 319.8 billion lira, goes to the higher-education services program, which funds grants, loans and dormitories run by the state student-loan and dormitory agency known as KYK.

```chart
type: bar
title: Turkey's Youth and Sports Ministry budget by program, 2027
note: Proposed allocations, billions of Turkish lira. Total 399.7 billion lira.
suffix: bn
source: [ANKA, minister's presentation to the Plan and Budget Committee](https://ankahaber.net/haber/tbmm-plan-ve-butce-komisyonu-bakan-bak-1-milyon-518-bin-166-ogrenciye-burs-ve-ogrenim-kredisi-destegi-sagliyoruz-181828c9)
---
Program | Lira
Higher education services | 319.8
Sport development | 55.9
Youth | 17.6
Management and support | 6.3
```

The chart shows how heavily the ministry's budget is weighted toward student support. Youth programs, by contrast, receive 17.6 billion lira, less than a third of the 55.9 billion lira for sport. By type of spending, 306.8 billion lira is current transfers and 53.7 billion lira is lending, the category that covers student loans.

Bak said 1,518,166 students receive a grant or loan. The monthly amount is 4,000 lira for undergraduates, 8,000 lira for master's students and 12,000 lira for doctoral students. He also reported that in 2025 the ministry spent 239.1 billion lira of its 241.4 billion lira appropriation, with no spending above the budget.

## A million dormitory beds

Bak put dormitory capacity at the center of his case. In 2002, the year the AKP first won power, the state ran 190 dormitories with 182,258 beds, he said. Today it runs 880 dormitories with 1,003,259 beds in all 81 provinces, 271 districts and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

```chart
type: column
title: State student dormitory beds in Turkey, 2002 and 2026
note: Bed capacity of dormitories run by the Youth and Sports Ministry, as reported by the minister.
source: [ANKA](https://ankahaber.net/haber/tbmm-plan-ve-butce-komisyonu-bakan-bak-1-milyon-518-bin-166-ogrenciye-burs-ve-ogrenim-kredisi-destegi-sagliyoruz-181828c9), [Meclis Haber Ajansı](https://meclishaberajansi.com/haber/bakan-bak-tan-mecliste-kritik-aciklamalar-formula-1-icin-bes-yillik-anlasma)
---
Year | Beds
2002 | 182258
2026 | 1003259
```

For the 2026-27 academic year, 313,926 students applied for a dormitory place and 301,677 were placed, a rate of 96%, Bak said. Applications are assessed with data from 12 public institutions and systems supported by artificial-intelligence algorithms, he told the committee, according to [Meclis Haber Ajansı](https://meclishaberajansi.com/haber/bakan-bak-tan-mecliste-kritik-aciklamalar-formula-1-icin-bes-yillik-anlasma). Twenty-nine new dormitories with 31,038 beds opened in 2026, and 21 more with 26,521 beds are under construction. Students in state dormitories get free breakfast and dinner, he said.

The minister's figures measure capacity and placement against applications. They do not show how many students did not apply, or how many beds share a room.

## 'Not even enough left for water'

Opposition lawmakers focused on what the grant buys. Ahmet Vehbi Bakırlıoğlu, a Manisa lawmaker from the YENİ Parti, walked the committee through the budget of an undergraduate at Hacettepe University in Ankara who lives in a KYK dormitory and receives the 4,000-lira grant, [ANKA reported](https://ankahaber.net/haber/plan-ve-butce-komisyonu-bakirlioglu-2027-burs-ucretlerinin-ne-zaman-aciklanacagini-bakan-bak-a-sordu-bugun-degil-ed246de3). After 1,350 lira for the dormitory and 650 lira for transport, 2,000 lira is left, about 65 lira a day. A single meal at the university costs 65 lira, he said, even if the student eats breakfast and dinner free in the dormitory.

"Won't this person buy a book? Won't they buy a newspaper? Won't they take part in social and cultural activities? Won't they go to the cinema?" Bakırlıoğlu asked, in remarks translated from Turkish. "Today the price of water is 15 lira, 20 lira. There isn't even money left to buy water with 4,000 lira."

He said students who cannot get a dormitory place face worse. Citing a survey by the youth group Emek Gençliği, he said 67% of young people live on less than 20,000 lira a month, and that housing in a shared student flat costs an average of 21,650 lira a month, rising to 27,400 lira with food. According to the same survey, he said, three-quarters of students can set aside only 4,000 lira a month for social and cultural spending, 27% only 1,000 lira, and 8% nothing at all. Family and state support fall short, he argued, so many students have to work to get by. Those survey figures were presented by the lawmaker and could not be independently checked.

Then he asked the minister directly: "What will the grants be in 2027? 4,000 lira or 5,000 lira?" Bak replied: "We will announce it." When Bakırlıoğlu asked whether that would be today, the minister said: "Not today."

## 'Dormitory rooms have become wards'

Hikmet Yalım Halıcı, a YENİ Parti lawmaker from Isparta, said only 4.41% of the ministry's budget goes to youth programs, [Yeni Ankara reported](https://www.yeniankara.com.tr/siyaset/muhalefetten-bakana-kyk-tepkisi-yurtlar-kogusa-dondu-189679). He said only a third of this year's target of 30,000 new dormitory beds had been met. "Dormitory rooms have been turned into wards," he said. "Dormitories now need to be judged not by quantity but by quality. This is what young people want from us." With a 4,000-lira grant, he said, a student's daily budget is 133 lira.

Beritan Güneş Altın, a DEM Party lawmaker from Mardin, criticized the gap between youth and sport spending in a country with 23 million young people. Deniz Demir, a CHP lawmaker from Ankara, pointed to more than 3.086 billion lira budgeted for transfers to associations and foundations in 2027. "Those who cite budget limits when it comes to students' grants, why don't they show the same care when it comes to transfers to associations and foundations?" he asked, demanding to know which organizations receive the money and for what.

Aysu Bankoğlu, a CHP lawmaker from Bartın, began by telling the minister that his strategic plans and presentations looked fine. "On paper everything is very good, but let's return a little to the realities of life," she said. She then described a typical student's day: choosing between the bus and lunch, an old computer that cannot run course software, and a six-person dormitory room with no quiet to study, according to a statement published by the [CHP](https://chp.org.tr/haberler/aysu-bankoglu-40-bin-ogrencinin-bir-yillik-bursu-bir-betul-sayan-kaya-etmiyor-mu). She said 1.8 billion lira would fund a year of grants for 40,000 students, and contrasted that figure with sums at issue in corruption allegations under investigation. She also said 2,538,000 young people, 22% of the youth population, are neither in education nor employment, and that one in four university graduates in work cannot find a job that matches their training. "Engineers are forced to become cashiers, teachers to become couriers," the CHP statement said.

The two sides are largely arguing about different things. The minister's 96% rate counts students who applied and were placed. The opposition's case is about the quality of rooms, the pace of new construction and the value of the grant.

## Other spending the minister highlighted

Bak listed several programs aimed at students beyond grants and beds. A psychosocial support platform for students in state dormitories and for athletes in national training centers had 312,000 registered users as of November, 243,000 of them active, he said. Students can book face-to-face or online sessions with psychologists and social workers.

In the region hit by the February 2023 earthquakes, the ministry has opened 11 dormitories with 12,106 beds and 131 youth and sports facilities at a cost of 8.89 billion lira, Bak said. Four more dormitories with 4,000 beds are under construction, and tenders and design work are under way for 15 dormitories with 14,150 beds.

He also described a "Working and Producing Youth" program that he said has supported 110 projects and provided jobs for 10,575 people in its first stage, with a second stage of 28 projects budgeted at about 2.81 billion lira. Those figures are the ministry's own and were not independently verified.

## The wider budget fight

Sadullah Kısacık, a Yeni Yol Party lawmaker from Adana, used the hearing to raise the investment-fund scandal, alleging that 800 billion lira had been stolen in what he called the fund crisis, about twice the ministry's budget. That figure is his allegation. The probe and the budget clashes around it were covered in earlier reports on [the fund investigation and jailings](/news/turkey-fund-probe-ergun-jailed-gurlek-433-suspects-opposition-group-speeches-november-2026) and on [the justice minister's budget hearing](/news/turkey-gurlek-budget-hearing-fund-probe-464-suspects-ozer-yeni-parti-clash-november-2026).

The hearing also covered sport. MHP lawmaker Saffet Sancaklı, a former national footballer, said the combined debt of Galatasaray, Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe exceeds 2.3 billion dollars and grows by about 200 million dollars a year, and called for tighter controls on club spending. "If we cannot find enough players for the national team in a country of 90 million, that is our shame," he said, according to Yeni Ankara. "If we do not increase oversight, the debts will grow and then we will not be able to solve them." Bak announced that Formula 1 will return to Istanbul Park under a five-year deal running through the 2031 season. He said Istanbul will host the 2027 UEFA Conference League final and about 6,000 athletes at the 2027 European Games, which he described as preparation for Turkey's bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The ministry has not said when the 2027 grant figure will be announced. The committee's earlier hearing on the labor ministry's budget dealt with pensions and the minimum wage, covered in [567 Politics' report on that session](/news/turkey-labor-budget-isikhan-pension-january-2027-minimum-wage-unemployment-fund-november-2026). Party positions are compared on [Turkey's political spectrum page](/political-spectrum?country=turkey).