Social Backgrounds of Turkish Students Who Studied at Robert College (1863-1971)

The subject of this study is to evaluate the social backgrounds of Turkish students who studied at Robert College between the years of 1863 and 1971. The students of the college are identified as an elite group and determination of whether this capacity ran in their family or was gained by virtue of their college education constitutes the objective of this study. Consequently it will be precipitated that they maintain their social status if they are already members of the elite group and if they are not, the college education gives them the chance to be elite. In the study, student files and registers preserved in the archive of Robert College were used and 52.310 documents belonging to 5.120 Turkish students who studied at the College between the aforementioned years were reviewed. These documents were analyzed by means of prosopography method that is used to collect data about people who are included in a well-defined group and evaluate them collectively. The data obtained in this way constituted the primary source of the study and other studies related to foreign schools in general and those specific to Robert College were utilised to support the information obtained from the data. Conclusion of the study is as follows: A great majority of the students are from metropolises. In case they are from small or medium-scale cities, it is determined that these cities mostly host other foreign schools. Another conclusion of the study is that the upper class families, top government officials being in the first place, who have largely a good command of western languages enroll their children in the college