INCLUSION SUPPORT AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Within the laws introduced by the Turkish Higher Education Council (YOK), Ankara Medipol University has founded a Disability Support Centre. This unit works on the transportation of disabled students around the campus and campuses off the city centre. Our university has a flag of Non-Disabled University flag.
At Ankara Medipol University, a legal committee called “Disability Support Centre” was established to support students with special needs during their education and provide them with similar conditions as other students to continue their academic studies. Students who are physically disabled, hearing impaired, visually handicapped, and with hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy and diabetes can benefit from this unit. The staffs of the committee have meetings regularly to instruct the public and university staff.
Gender equality, integration of disabled students and combating xenophobia are respected at our university. Our university promotes a campus meeting for the needs of disabled people. In this respect, there is a lift in each faculty that disabled people can use.
INCLUSION SUPPORT
The Erasmus+ Programme aims to promote the participation of individuals with fewer opportunities. An individual with fewer opportunities is defined as a potential participant whose personal physical, mental, or health-related circumstances may prevent them from participating in a project or mobility activity in the absence of additional financial support.
In order to provide additional financial support to students and staff requiring inclusion support, the beneficiary higher education institution must submit a request for additional funding to the National Agency.
Once a participant requiring inclusion support has been selected, their estimated additional costs shall be determined, where applicable, and a request for additional funding shall be submitted to the National Agency. Such requests may be submitted during the contractual period and, in any event, no later than 60 days before the end date of the relevant project period. No request for an increase in the grant may be submitted after the participant's mobility activity has ended.
The application form must include a clear explanation of the reasons why inclusion support is required and must be accompanied by appropriate supporting documentation. For example, where inclusion support is requested on the basis of a disability, a medical report issued within the preceding three months indicating the nature and degree of the disability, or a copy of a disability card, must be submitted. In the case of chronic illnesses, an appropriate medical report must be provided.
The application must also include documentation confirming that the host higher education institution is aware that the participant requires inclusion support and has the appropriate facilities and arrangements to accommodate the participant. The requested amount of additional funding and the reasons for each additional cost must be specified in detail in the application form, in accordance with the requirements set out therein.
The requested additional funding must be directly related to enabling the participant requiring inclusion support to participate in the mobility activity. The National Agency shall assess each application individually and determine whether additional funding can be granted and, where applicable, the appropriate amount of such funding.
The amount of additional funding approved shall be incorporated into the relevant budget category of the beneficiary institution's grant agreement. For participants receiving inclusion support, the final amount of additional funding shall be determined on the basis of the actual costs incurred.
At the end of the mobility activity, invoices and other supporting documents relating to the use of the additional funding must be obtained and retained in the participant's file for presentation in the event of an audit or other inspection. Expenses that are not supported by appropriate documentation, as well as expenses exceeding the amount of inclusion support granted under the relevant agreement, shall not be considered eligible, even if such expenses have actually been incurred.
ADDITIONAL GRANT SUPPORT FOR PARTICIPANTS WITH FEWER OPPORTUNITIES
Participants with fewer opportunities may be eligible to receive Additional Grant Support in addition to the grant to which they are otherwise entitled. For the purposes of this support mechanism, a participant with fewer opportunities is defined as an individual who is economically and socially disadvantaged and falls within one or more of the following categories:
-Individuals covered by Law No. 2828
-Individuals for whom a protection, care, or accommodation decision has been issued by the Ministry of Family and Social Services pursuant to Law No. 2828.
-Students subject to the Child Protection Law No. 5395
-Students for whom a protection, care, or accommodation decision has been issued pursuant to Law No. 5395 on Child Protection.
-Orphans or individuals receiving a survivor's pension.
-Spouses and children of martyrs or veterans, and veterans themselves.*
-Individuals receiving, or whose families receive, a means-tested assistance allowance
It is sufficient to provide documentation demonstrating that the student, their parent(s), or legal guardian was receiving financial assistance from a municipality or a public institution or organisation—such as Ministries, Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations, the General Directorate of Foundations, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay), or the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD)—at the time of application for the Erasmus+ programme.
-Persons with disabilities.**
-Individuals whose parent or legal guardian receives a disability or means-tested allowance under Law No. 2022 of 1 July 1976 on the Provision of Monthly Allowances to Turkish Citizens Aged 65 or Over Who Are in Need, Weak and Without Family Support, and to Turkish Citizens with Disabilities and Those in Need.***
-Individuals who themselves, or whose first-degree relatives, have received disaster-affected assistance from AFAD.****
Footnotes
* In addition to war veterans and their spouses and children, and the spouses and children of those who lost their lives in war, priority shall also be given, among applicants for Erasmus+ student mobility, to the spouses and children of public officials who, pursuant to Article 21 of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713 dated 12 April 1991, were injured, became disabled, died, or were killed as a result of terrorist acts while performing their duties in Türkiye or abroad, including cases where their official status had subsequently ceased. Priority shall also be given, pursuant to Article 7 of Decree-Law No. 667 dated 23 July 2016, to the spouses and children of civilians who lost their lives, or civilians who became disabled, as a result of the coup attempt and terrorist acts carried out on 15 July 2016 and acts constituting a continuation thereof, as well as to their spouses and children.
** Persons with a disability rate of at least 50%, documented by a Disability Health Board Report issued in accordance with the Regulation on Disability Assessment for Adults, published in the Official Gazette No. 30692 dated 20 February 2019.
*** Law No. 2022 – Official Legislation Database
**** This category may be applied only once. If a student receives Additional Grant Support under this category, they shall not be eligible to receive Additional Grant Support under the same category in any subsequent mobility activities.
Scholarships provided by the Council of Higher Education Credit and Dormitories Institution (KYK) and similar scholarships, other grants, allowances, and scholarships awarded on the basis of academic achievement, as well as one-off financial assistance, shall not be considered financial assistance for the purposes of this provision.
Students who fall within one or more of the categories specified above may, upon request and subject to the submission of appropriate supporting documentation, be eligible to receive Additional Grant Support, the amount of which shall be determined according to the type of mobility and specified in the relevant Erasmus+ call for applications.