Vehbi Koç Foundation Educational Scholarships, a scholarship program begun in 1969 by the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV) with the aim of providing equality of opportunity in education to talented young people with insufficient financial resources. Over 50,000 students have so far benefited from VKV’s educational scholarships, which have been available since the program began. Program scholarships are mostly given on an annual basis to vocational high school and university students.
Students who continue on to undergraduate programs at state universities can have their costs covered by VKV through University Scholarships; nursing students benefit from Nursing Scholarships; Boğaziçi University and Istanbul Technical University assistants can receive Assistant Scholarships; vocational school students can benefit from Vocational Educational Scholarships, which are made up of donations from Koç Holding companies (Fiat Laboratory, Aygaz, Yapı Kredi Bank, and Opet scholarships). The top three most successful graduates of the Koç elementary schools that are part of the 17 Schools Project benefit from non-repayable 17 Schools Success Scholarships. In addition, there are scholarship opportunities for successful children of Koç Group employees studying at university or vocational high schools whose family incomes fall below a certain level.
The VKV Educational Scholarships Portal was formed at www.vkv.org.tr in order to provide a transparent and sustainable applications infrastructure, and from the 2014-2015 academic year onwards it began to take applications online.
In addition, scholarship programs for successful students with insufficient financial means are available from other VKV institutions, Koç University, Koç School, VEKAM, AKMED and ANAMED.