The author examines the first generation of doctoral students trained under Turkey’s university system reformed in the 1930ties, tracking the lifetime careers of 433 Ph.D. recipients in the Natural and Formal Sciences over a 36-year period. Focusing on this foundational cohort—educated at a time when both foreign professors and foreign-trained domestic academics entered the system—allows the analysis to assess how advisor background shaped early academic lineages and long-term career outcomes. By linking students to their primary advisors, the study evaluates patterns of advisor assignment and subsequent academic and non-academic trajectories, accounting for advisor characteristics, student attributes, and institutional context. Subgroup analyses further highlight variation across advisor types, offering insight into how migration-driven expertise became embedded in the formative decades of modern Turkish higher education.

Kilickan, Nur Merve (2026): Legacy in exile? Refugee professors from Nazi Germany and the reformation of Turkish academia. Higher Education. DOI: 10.1007/s10734-026-01707-0.