Technical Education Reform

Atatürk was aware that there could be no modernisation or development without education and trained cadres. For this reason the education reform was carried out in step with the industrial investments.

Institutions Founded

• 1933 University Reform. The Darülfünun was closed and replaced by Istanbul University; the concepts of faculty, rector and university took root through this reform.
• Higher Engineering School. Its roots grew together with the industrial investments of the 1930s, and in 1944 it was restructured as Istanbul Technical University (ITU).
• Other higher-education institutions. Ankara Law School (1925), Gazi Education Institute (with roots in Konya in 1926) and the Higher Agricultural Institute (1930/1933) opened in this period.
• European student programme. Talented young people were sent to Germany, France, Belgium and the United States; on their return they brought what they had learned to the country.
• German academics. German scholars fleeing the Nazi regime were invited to Türkiye under the 1933 reform. Depending on the source, professors and their assistants number between 135 and 190; one source puts the number of German professors employed at Istanbul University from the 1933–34 winter semester at 82.
• Village Institutes. Combining education with production, these institutions aimed to train the human resources of rural development.

Note: the Higher Engineering School's conversion into ITU (1944) and the Village Institutes' legal founding (17 April 1940) both took place after Atatürk's death in 1938; both rest on foundations laid in this era and are included here as links of work begun in the Atatürk era and completed after his death.

Sport and Physical Education

• Turkish Sports Association (1936). This was the central sports body that gathered all sports federations under one roof; in 1938 it became the General Directorate of Physical Education.
• Physical Education Law No. 3530 (1938). The law put compulsory physical education on a legal footing and added it to the school curriculum.
• 1936 Berlin Olympics. Türkiye's regular participation in the Olympics was consolidated in this period; wrestling, weightlifting and athletics were designated as priority sports.
• The Aeronautical Association's sports branch. Gliding and aviation sports were promoted; the Türkkuşu school provided both aviation training and sports infrastructure.