Turkish School is Top Performer in Australian University Enrollment
The girl'' campus of Isik College, a Turkish school in Melbourne, had the highest university enrollment rate in Australia this year, school officials announced in an e-mail sent to Today's Zaman.
According to a news story published yesterday on the Web site of The Age, an Australian daily, the reason behind the success of Işik College in university entrance rates could be its single-sex education policy, as other top achievers also mostly included single-sex schools. The Age reported that "single-sex schools are the state's top performers when it comes to university enrollment rates, according to Government data released yesterday [Monday]."
The top of the class of 2006 were students from Isik College's Broadmeadows campus for girls, with all of last year's 12 students enrolled at university this year. The school's boys campus at Upfield was also very successful, with 95 percent of VCE -- a credential awarded to students who have completed 12 years in secondary schooling -- graduates now at university and 5 percent opting to defer their study.
However Isik College Principal Mehmet Koca did not agree with the observation that his school's results were related to gender. He told The Age that small class sizes and a mentor program made for the winning combination. Under the mentoring system, graduates volunteer to return to the school to tutor students after hours in specific subjects. "That gives students a role model they can look up to and the tutoring is free of charge," Koca said. "It also helps students believe in themselves and aspire to university."
Isik College was set up 10 years ago as a private school for economically and socially disadvantaged Turkish-Australian students. This year's Broadmeadows school captain, Iman Zayegh, 16, said the single-sex environment was supportive and comfortable. Zayegh, who gets tutoring in chemistry and is aiming to study pharmacy at Monash University next year, said the mentoring program was invaluable.
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