Reflections on English-Medium Instruction in Turkish Higher Education Institutions, Educational Quality and Insights from International Experience

This chapter will approach the concept of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Turkish higher education from the perspective of quality assurance and enhancement of teaching and learning in the academic programmes. Following the market driven global higher education trends, Turkey’s signatory commitment to the Bologna Declaration in 2001 indicated its intention to provide a transparent, comparable and accountable higher education environment to enable student and staff mobility, which has increased the country’s focus both on quality and EMI matters. Increasing acceptance of English as a global academic lingua franca and worldwide implementations of it as the instructional language at undergraduate and graduate levels in higher education institutions have brought challenges worldwide as well as in Turkey. While existing studies present valuable insights into the issue focusing on various aspects of EMI in higher education, they are largely inconclusive and/or lack the rigor to make generalised conclusions. Thus, rather than elaborating on the challenges that EMI has caused in Turkish academia, this chapter will focus on how challenges can become opportunities to enhance the quality of education in Turkish higher education institutions for both academics and students by providing recommendations derived from international experiences.