Turkey's YÖS Exam and Rising Tuition for Foreign Students: What Changed
By Muntasir • Published Jul 25, 2025 • Updated Sep 20, 2026 • Education Planning, Study in Europe, Money & Budgeting, Education News & Policy
Turkish public universities admit foreign students through YÖS, an entrance exam most universities now run and score independently rather than through one national exam. Tuition for international students has risen sharply in recent years and gets reset annually, so a fee you find quoted from an older source can be well out of date.
🎓 Foreign nationals apply through YÖS or an accepted equivalent (SAT, A-levels, IB, and similar).
📩 Most universities run their own YÖS exam on their own calendar rather than one shared national test.
💶 International tuition resets annually by government decree, and recent years brought steep increases from what used to be token fees.
⏱️ Exam dates, accepted equivalent exams, and fees vary by university, so confirm directly with each one you target.
How YÖS admission works now
YÖS (Yabanci Uyruklu Ogrenci Sinavi) is Turkey's foreign national student entrance exam route into public universities. It used to run as a single centralized exam, but authority shifted to individual universities, and most public universities now design and administer their own YÖS exam on their own calendar rather than sharing one national sitting.
Alongside their own YÖS, most universities also accept international qualifications as an equivalent path in: SAT scores, GCE A-levels, the International Baccalaureate, and comparable national school-leaving exams from your home country. This matters for European applicants, since a strong A-level or IB result often opens the same door as sitting YÖS itself, without traveling for a Turkey-specific test.
What eligibility requires
YÖS and its equivalents are for foreign nationals, not Turkish citizens, and most programmes also require you to have finished secondary education outside Turkey or in a foreign-curriculum school inside Turkey. Universities check your diploma's equivalency alongside your exam result, so start that document verification early rather than leaving it until after an offer arrives.
Why tuition changed
Public university tuition for international students in Turkey used to sit at a fraction of what EU universities charge, often described as a token annual fee rather than a real cost driver. That changed as Turkey moved to reset international tuition every year through government decree, a mechanism that responds to currency movements and rising university operating costs rather than staying fixed year over year.
The result is that a tuition figure quoted from a guide or forum post even a year or two old undersells what you would actually pay today. Fees also vary widely by field. Medicine and dentistry programmes charge far more than humanities or social science programmes at the same university, and private foundation universities set their own separate fee schedules entirely apart from the public system.
What to check before you apply
Confirm whether your target university runs its own YÖS or accepts SAT, A-levels, IB, or another exam you already hold.
Get the current year's international tuition figure directly from the university's international office, not from an older source.
Check diploma equivalency requirements early, since document verification often takes longer than the application window allows.
Compare public university fees against foundation (private) universities in your target field, since the gap between them has widened.