Tarihsel süreç içerisinde eğitim bütün yönleriyle tartışılmış, hedeflenen insan modelinin yetiştirilmesinde sürekli yeni programlar denenmiş ve bu kapsamda her dönemde inşa ve ıslah çalışmalarıyla eğitim politikaları üretilmiştir. İlköğretimden yükseköğretime kadar bütün alanlarda yoğun çalışmaların Selçuklu ve Osmanlı devleti dönemlerinde yapıldığı bilinmektedir. Eğitim ıslahatları yönündeki en önemli çabalardan birinin, aynı zamanda Emrullah Efendi ile Satı Bey arasında gerçekleşen bir tartışmayı da yansıtan “Tuba Ağacı Nazariyesi” olduğu tarihi kayıtlarda geçmektedir. Satı Bey bir ağacın normal gelişimi gibi eğitim ıslahatlarının ilköğretimden itibaren başlaması gerektiğini savunurken, Emrullah Efendi cennette olduğu varsayılan, kökleri yukarıda dalları yerde olan bir ağaçtan esinlenerek eğitimdeki ıslahatların yükseköğretimden başlaması gerektiğini vurgulamıştır. Çalışma, Tuba Ağacı Nazariyesi’ni çıkış noktası olarak alarak, günümüz eğitim sistemi içerinde uyarlayarak ve yeni paradigmaları analiz ederek yükseköğretim için yeni bir model ortaya koymayı amaçlamıştır. Bu çalışmada, günümüzde yükseköğretime neden öncelik verilmesi gerektiği, bu önceliğin model temelli tarihi dayanağı, yeni paradigmalar ışığında, yeni yükseköğretim yaklaşımları ve modelleri açıklanmıştır. Çalışma, literatür taraması şeklinde yürütülmüştür. Buna göre; tarihsel tecrübeden yararlanarak günümüz üniversitelerinin öncelik konuları, yeni yükseköğretim yaklaşım ve modelleri temel alınarak ve belirlenerek bu eğitim arayışlarına katkıda bulunulmuştur.

INTRODUCTION It is noteworthy that educating and being educated are two issues that are always associated with some sort of problems when phases of higher education, from past to present, are considered. The main problem usually is, not knowing where to begin implementing the innovations and reforms in the educational policies and practices to deal with the problems associated with educating and being educated. It is not always easy to assess whether it would be better to start implementing the innovations and reforms in the educational policies and practices from the primary school level or from the higher education level; thus, in this sense, the problem can also be described as a priority issue. This priority issue has led to the creation of various debates and different perspectives in the Turkish education history as well. One such renowned debate is the one between Emrullah Efendi (hereinafter referred to as Lord Emrullah) and Sati’ Bey (hereinafter referred to as Sir Sati’). Lord Emrullah's approach to the educational reform was that to begin the innovations and reforms in the educational policies and practices at the higher education level, whereas Sir Sati’'s approach was to begin the innovations and reforms in the educational policies and practices at the primary education level. In this regard, Lord Emrullah's approach is considered to be a top-to-down approach and is also known with the name of Theory of Tuba Tree, a tree, believed to be in heaven in Islamic literature, which have its roots hanging up in the air; and Sir Sati’'s approach is a bottom-up approach and is also known with the name of Theory of Cherry Tree, which have its roots in the soil like a regular tree. Especially the reforms realized at the Darülfünün, which is late Ottoman period higher education institution, indicate that Lord Emrullah's approach was acknowledged and implemented in the late Ottoman period in comparison with Sir Sati’'s approach. When Turkish educational system is considered in general, there always seems to be a concurrency or a simultaneity problem, which is a problem of aligning separate educational levels, namely, Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, primary education between 1st and 4th grades, middle school education between 4th and 8th grades, high school education between 9th and 12th grades, higher education, and post-graduate education, in terms of educational objectives, curriculum, inputs, outputs, etc. For instance, when the scope of the educational reforms are limited just to higher education, then it would be difficult to expect students that come from an outdated K-12 system to accord themselves with the new reforms. Going back to the late Ottoman period including the first few years of the Turkish Republic, we see that questions such as 'Why did we fall behind so much?', 'What can we do to better our situation?' were commonly raised. Two educational reform activities are noteworthy during this era. First one is the implementation of a series of an organized planning-programming activities that took place as a result of intense debates on educational reforms in İstanbul during the time when Ottoman had to retreat from Balkan Peninsula suffering from massive casualities. The second activity that is noteworthy to mention is the First Delegation of Scientific Studies helf between 15 July and 15 August 1923 in Ankara during a time, when the newwly established Turkish Republic was facing many other problems domestically and abroad. This study is based on descriptive research and the goal is to introduce a new model for higher education referring to The Tuba Tree Theory after about 100 years once more, adapting it into today’s educational system after a thorough analysis of newly existing paradigms. Amongst issues that are discussed are that why higher education should be given priority today, and the model-based historical background of this priority as well as other new approaches and models in the light of new