Zur Entstehung der Türkisch-Deutschen Universität in Istanbul – politische Rahmenbedingungen und rechtliche Voraussetzungen

The article is focused on the Turkish-German University (TGU), Istanbul / Turkey, which started its educational program in winter term 2013/2014 with a selected curriculum and aims at a total of 5000 students when it reaches full operation in the near future. The university has its foundation on a bilateral agreement concluded in 2008 when representatives of both states agreed to establish a binational research-oriented higher education institution covering a wide range of fields with strong regard to employability. Efforts to found such a institution dated back as early as 1912 during the Ottoman Empire followed by attempts in 1956 and 1990. The underlying text starts with an overview of the historical context and elaborates on the motives explaining the emergence of the binational university. Hereafter, the paper is split in two parts. The first parts centers around the institutions and actors, which are involved in the constitution of the TGU. The constellation of actors is analyzed with respect to its interaction and governance. After approaching the matter from the side of political science we continue with a jurisprudential analysis (part two). The focus is here on the terms and conditions underlying the attempt to create a transnational university and thereby to solve legal problems. The paper concludes with a summary of the risks and the opportunities involved in the process of a bilateral higher education project.