Turkey and Syria have signed a memorandum on cooperation in higher education. Under the agreement, four academic units of Gaziantep University operating in Syria will be transferred to Aleppo University.
The memorandum was signed by Erol Özvar, head of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education, and Marwan Al-Halabi, Syria’s minister of higher education and scientific research. The signing ceremony took place at Gaziantep University on October 14, 2026.
The units to join Aleppo University are the Afrin Faculty of Education, the Azaz Faculty of Islamic Sciences, the Al-Bab Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and the Jarablus Vocational School.
Students at the Çobanbey Faculty of Medicine and the Çobanbey Vocational School of Health Services, both affiliated with Turkey’s University of Health Sciences, are expected to continue their studies at the same or equivalent higher education institutions in Syria.
Özvar said a key priority was to ensure students’ education is not interrupted and graduates’ rights are protected. The memorandum also provides for academic and administrative staff at Gaziantep University’s units to continue in their current status under the relevant legislation.
Özvar said talks in Ankara on August 5, 2026, had also addressed plans to establish a Syria-Turkey University in Damascus. Al-Halabi thanked Turkey and the institutions supporting higher education in Syria, saying the new stage should be seen not as the end of cooperation but as the building of the future.
