and 5,100 teachers were employed in 345 vocational training centers. The new system: 4+4+4 In March 2012 the Grand National Assembly passed new legislation on primary and secondary education usually termed as "4+4+4" (4 years primary education, first level, 4 years primary education, second level and 4 years secondary education). Children will begin their primary education in the first month of September following their sixth birthdays and will come to a close during the school year in which students turn 14 years old. The primary education stages, which includes the first two stages of four years' education each, will entail four years of mandatory elementary education, followed by an additional mandatory four years of middle school education, in which students will be able to choose whether they want to study at a general education middle school or a religious vocational middle school, which are referred to as Imam Hatip schools. The new legislation includes the reopening of Imam Hatip middle schools. Primary education establishments will be set up separately as independent elementary schools and middle schools. Universities Higher education includes all levels of institutions giving education past the secondary school level for a period of at least 17 years. Higher education institutions include: Universities Faculties Institutes Higher education schools Vocational higher education schools Conservatories Application and research centers In the 1930s, at the suggestion of Albert Einstein, the Atatürk government hired over a thousand established academics, including world renowned émigré professors escaping the Nazi takeover in Germany. Most were in medicine, mathematics, and natural science, plus a few in the faculties of law and the arts. Germany's exiled professors served as directors in eight of twelve Istanbul's basic science Institutes, as well as six directors of Istanbul's seventeen clinics at the Faculty of Medicine. In the academic year 2001–2002 there were 76 universities, 53 of which belonged to the state and 23 to foundations. In these institutions 66,700 personnel were working, 63,000 in state universities and 3,700 in others. After the national university entrance examination organized by the national examining body students, if they succeed, continue with their studies at a university. Foreign students take the Yös exam or provide equivalent credentials approved by the Higher Education Council (YÖK). Universities provide either two or four years of education for undergraduate studies, while graduate programs last a minimum of two years. Some universities also ask for an additional year of English