Teacher verification repeatedly declined despite valid YÖK faculty certificate (Turkey)

[jacobecco]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Verification Help & Guidance

Hi everyone,

Hello,

I am an Assistant Professor (Dr. Öğr. Üyesi) in the Department of Nuclear Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Sinop University, Turkey. I have applied for GitHub Education teacher benefits several times for the account @jacobecco and every application has been declined.

What I have already done:

• Submitted my official "Öğretim Elemanı Belgesi" (Certificate of Academic Staff) issued electronically by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) of the Republic of Turkey, dated 8 September 2026. It contains my full name, my title, the full name of my university, my department, and the sentence confirming that I am currently employed there. The document carries a barcode that can be verified at turkiye.gov.tr/belge-dogrulama.
• Submitted the original document photographed next to a full English translation, in a single high-resolution image.
• Added and verified my institutional email address (@sinop.edu.tr) on my GitHub account.
• Set my GitHub profile name and my billing information name to "Ekrem Gülsevinçler", which matches my document exactly, including the Turkish characters. I logged out and back in before each new application.
• Applied from the university network as a faculty member (not as a student).

Earlier rejections listed specific reasons (unreadable text, school name missing, not identified as faculty, name mismatch). I addressed each of them and those reasons no longer appear. My most recent rejection contains no specific issues at all — only the generic link to the troubleshooting page. So I have no remaining indication of what to fix.

My name contains the Turkish characters ü, ç and İ. I suspect the automated name matching may be struggling with these, but I cannot change my name in either place because it must match the official document.

Could someone please review my application manually, or tell me what else is needed? I am happy to provide the barcode number of the certificate, an employment letter from our HR department, or any other documentation you require.

Username: @jacobecco
Institution: Sinop University, Sinop, Turkey
Institutional email: (verified, @sinop.edu.tr)

Thank you very much for your help.
18080327290_Akademisyen.pdf

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