Student Selection and Placement System (Turkish: Öğrenci Seçme ve Yerleştirme Sistemi, ÖSYS) or Higher Education Foundations Examination (Turkish: Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı, YKS), formerly Higher Education Examination Undergraduate Placement Examination, (Turkish: Yükseköğretime Geçis Sınavı-Lisans Yerleştirme Sınav, YGS-LYS), is a standardized test for the admission to higher education in Turkey administered by ÖSYM.
With the increasing number of youth and the overloaded applications, the universities gathered and founded "Yüksekögretim Kurulu", the Higher Education Council, and a subdivision named ÖSYM, the Student Selection and Placement Center.
If a student did not achieve the specified grade in ÖSS, they did not have the right to enter ÖYS, and thus, lost their chance to be accepted to a university.
There were five LYS sessions, whereas the previous university entrance system, the ÖSS, was held once in a year throughout the country.
All applicants applying to YKS are required to attend the Basic Proficiency Test (TYT).
Results are announced in the second half of June and students have to make their university preferences by the last week of July.
was a slogan used by the Turkish Education Association criticizing the ÖSS system for attempting to encompass all the work of a student throughout their 12 years of academic life in a 3-hour multiple choice exam.
Therefore, there is a huge sector in Turkey of private evening and weekend cram schools ("dershane") all around the country.
The dershane sector is bolstered every year by huge media interest as the results of the exam are disclosed and the students who rank in the top few appear on TV and in the newspapers.