Southern University officials recently returned from a trip to Turkey, the first part of the school’s new efforts to bolster international recruitment and engagement. The weeklong trip, privately funded by an international higher education advocacy group based in Baton Rouge, gave SUBR Chancellor James Llorens and other school delegates a chance to meet with legislators, education leaders and students in seven cities.

Talks included proposed exchange degree programs between Southern and Turkish universities.

The partnerships in the works with multiple universities include the traditional recruitment of international graduate students and faculty exchange programs, but also “two-plus-two” and “three-plus-one” programs where students start at Turkish institutions and finish their bachelor’s degrees at Southern, Llorens said.

Also in the works is the opportunity with the Turkish higher education Measurement, Selection and Placement Center, called OSYM in Turkey, to allow students from high school to automatically test for enrolling at Southern. In Turkey’s “very centralized” higher education system, only about 20 percent of those tested get into universities. But Kandara also noted that the Turkish government is investing heavily in education and building several new universities. (The Advocate)

Southern University