Üniversitelere önemli yatırımların yapıldığı bir dönemde yükseköğretime olan talebin düşmesi hem akademinin sorunu, hem de batık maliyetler ve kaynakların verimli kullanılamaması nedeniyle bir kamu maliyesi sorunudur. Bu çalışmada Türkiye’de faaliyet gösteren bazı Siyaset Bilimi ve Kamu Yönetimi bölümleri sayılarında ve öğrenci sayılarında gözlemlenen değişimin tarihsel bir değerlendirmesi yapılarak, son dönemde gözlemlenen yerleşen öğrenci sayılarındaki azalmanın ardındaki olası nedenler ve bölümlerin mevcut durumları tartışmaya açılacaktır. Çalışmada kontenjan ve yerleştirme sayılarının eş zamanlı olarak açıklanmaya başlandığı 2002 yılından 2018 yılına kadar olan döneme ait ÖSYM verileri kullanılarak yıllara göre bölüm sayıları, kontenjanları ve yerleştirme sayıları ve oranlarındaki değişim incelenecektir. 2012 yılına kadar bölüm sayısı, bölüm kontenjanları ve yerleşen öğrenci sayılarında bir artış gözlemlenmekteyken, sonrasında, 2016 yılı hariç, yerleşen öğrenci sayılarında önemli azalmalar gözlemlenmektedir. Büyük şehirlerdeki ve köklü üniversiteleri olan gelişmiş il merkezlerindeki devlet üniversiteleri bünyesindeki bölümlerin kontenjanlarını doldurdukları, daha yeni kurulmuş üniversitelerdeki bölümlerin örgün öğretim ve ikinci öğretim kontenjanlarına taleplerin azaldığı, vakıf üniversitelerine bağlı programlara olan talebin düştüğü görülmektedir. Bu düşüşün nedenleri incelenirken ilgili bölümler arası nitelik ve nicelik farklılıkları, dünya genelinde gözlemlenen eğilimler, Türkiye özelinde İİBF ve SBF bölümlerine olan ilginin azalması, mezunların istihdam sorunları gibi değişkenler karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenerek sonuçlar tartışılacak ve ilgili kurumlar için politika seçenekleri ortaya konulacaktır.

Deficit and excess are highly relevant concepts for problem definition stage of policy analysis. In water management, scarcity of water cause drought and abundance of water results in flooding problems. Likewise, high demand for certain departments is a problem for the candidates and the low demand is a problem for the relevant departments and universities. Especially at a time when successive governments invested heavily for higher education, declining demand for higher education is both a problem for the academy itself and a public finance issue, due to sunk costs and ineffective and inefficient use of public funds. In fact, sharp drops in enrolment rates is a serious problem for a number of Turkish universities. Although well-established universities do not face a serious problem concerning their enrolment rates, recent additions to Turkish public universities and universities established by foundations struggle to attract student for their certain programmes, like economics, business administration, political science and public administration, labour economics and industrial relations, international relations and econometrics.     In this study, performance of Public Administration and Political Science and Public Administration Departments in Turkey was analysed historically with reference to number of departments, student enrolment numbers and rates to identify possible reasons behind declining student demand. In the study, figures concerning the number of departments, quotas and enrolment numbers and rates and the changes in student numbers between the year 2002 and 2018, was analysed with reference to the Measurement Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) data. Initial findings of the study identifies a persistent rise in the number of departments, department quotas and number of students enrolled until 2012.  In fact, higher education and diplomas have been highly valued and desired objectives for a majority of people in Turkey. Successive governments invested in higher education to meet this demand. This has been especially the case in the 2000’s in which number of higher education institutions have proliferated in both public universities and higher education institutions established by foundations. Furthermore, new departments and programmes established, along with sharp rises in quotas of already existing departments and programmes, resulted in a “higher education boom” in Turkey. Turkey outnumbered some well-developed OECD member countries concerning its achievements in gross and net enrolment rates. In doing so, certain programmes in Schools of Economic and Administrative Sciences were rapidly established and their capacity was inflated without paying due attention to the quality of education, student/academic staff ratio, physical infrastructure and employment options of graduates. At the end, there has been a significant decrease in the number of students enrolled since then, with the exception of 2016. According to initial findings, departments in well-established public universities of developed provincial centres and large metropolitan cities have no difficulty in attracting students. Although some of the departments in newly established universities are doing fine in formal education programs, there is no demand for their secondary/evening education programs. In some cases, there is no demand for both formal and secondary/evening education programs. This decline in demand is more widespread in programs linked to universities established by foundations. There are a number of reasons behind this decline. Diploma inflation due to increased supply of graduates and limited demand, problems of employment after graduation, and problems with the teaching staff quality have been mentioned in a number of studies. At the end of the day, higher education became an easily available public good; yet again, some department lost their appeal to prospective students in their quest for upward mobilisation and better job prospects.  A questionnaire applied to students who did not opt for a placement in higher education also indicated similar findings. The quality of higher education, problems with employment, geographical distance, problems of accommodation and other campus facilities, financial problems of families and insufficiency of secondary education came out as major reasons behind their decision.         At the end, Turkish parents and students’ appetite for higher education replaced with a demand for high quality higher education.  Since there is no point in insisting on same mistakes, a number policy recommendations and alternative policy options for departments, universities and Higher Education Board (YÖK) will be suggested to solve problems within their own jurisdiction. Secondary programmes of departments with declining demand should cease enrolling new students gradually and formal programmes should enrol students based on reduced staff/student ratios. Some Departments could be merged to offer a better service to their prospective students. Higher Education Board should take certain demands from universities seriously and a formal link between diplomas and certain jobs should be established to establish a framework to be used in staff recruitment processes.