Özet:

Modern states have used education as a tool to build their citizens and give them an identity. The Ottoman Empire could not remain indifferent to the developments in Europe. In particular, the development of nationalism and the fact that it started to affect communities from different ethnic and religious backgrounds in the country, and the country's concern for disintegration made it necessary to take steps to build a common Ottoman identity. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of official ideology on higher education in the process from the Tanzimat period to the early Republic. Within the scope of the study, the development of the higher education system, the "Darülfünun", in the Ottoman State was examined. The transformation in the higher education system during the Republican period will be examined and the ideological goals behind will be evaluated. The main finding of the study, which benefited from the historical method of qualitative research, is that the higher education institutions established in the Ottoman and Republican periods reflect the official ideology of the period.