This paper assesses the glass ceiling for academics in the Turkish universities with reference to top administration positions: rectors and deans. Glass ceiling indicators show that the glass ceiling thickened from the 1990s to late 2000s. The findings are discussed against the background of the transformation in the Turkish universities in the last decades and in the context of three areas of challenges: the hierarchy deeply rooted in the current higher education system, the restructuring scheme with the recently introduced public administration reform law and marketisation of higher education.