Dismissed Academic Becoming Student at Same University

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The bylaw change that prevented dismissed Ankara University academic Cenk Yiğiter from enrolling at the school as an undergraduate student has been canceled by the Ankara 18th Administrative Court.

Cenk Yiğiter made the following statement after the ruling:

"The bylaw article that violated the right to education by preventing those who were dismissed by the statutory decrees from enrolling at the university as undergraduate students has been canceled by the court. So, I am becoming an Ankara University Faculty of Communications student after two years.

"Two law professors, one is a professor of constitutional law, have their signs under the bylaw change that clearly violates the Constitution and the international conventions that we are a part of: Merih Öden and Muharrem Özen. They need to be ashamed. Maybe they learn a bit of law from the court ruling.

Court: Everyone has the right to education

The court ruled that Yiğiter not being admitted as a student to the university violates the law. It cited the Human Rights Universal Declaration Article 26 that says, " Everyone has the right to education", and the European Convention of Human Rights Article 2 that says, "No person shall be denied the right to education."

In its reasoned decision, the court noted that there is no regulation in the Law no 2547 on Higher Education and in the statutory decrees that prevent dismissed academics to study at the universities that they were dismissed from.

What happened?

Cenk Yiğiter, a research associate at the Ankara University Faculty of Law, was dismissed from his job by a statutory decree in 2017 for signing the Peace Declaration.

Yiğiter entered the university exam in the summer of 2017. He qualified to study at the Radio, Television and Cinema Department at the Ankara University Faculty of Communications.

Ankara University changed its bylaws on August 8, 2017, the day the exam results were announced, adding the condition of "not being dismissed from public service" for enrolling at the university.

Yiğiter told bianet at the time that the guidelines did not include that article, hence the bylaw was being applied retrospectively.

Yiğiter filed a lawsuit at the Ankara 18th Administrative Court. While the trial was continuing, Ankara University changed the bylaws again, replacing "not being dismissed from public service" with "not being dismissed from higher education institutions or not being dismissed from public service when working as university personnel."

The court canceled the bylaw change. Yiğiter gained the right to enroll at the university. (AS/VK)