SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY CHOSEN FOR TURKISH STUDENT EXCHANGE

Southeast Missouri State University is among five Missouri institutions listed in a promotion spearheaded by a Turkish newspaper offering full scholarships for Turkish students to study abroad.

The promotion, which began Thursday and will continue for two weeks in the Istanbul newspaper, Hurriyet, offers 101 five-year scholarships for Turkish students to study at primarily Missouri institutions.

Besides Southeast, participating schools are the University of Missouri-Rolla, Southwest Missouri State University, Central Missouri State University, Northwest Missouri State University, the University of North Alabama, and San Diego State University.

The promotion also is offering 1,001 scholarships for Turkish students to study at Turkish universities.

The scholarships cover tuition, room, board, textbooks, health insurance, a monthly stipend and round-trip airfare.

Turkish students have until the end of May to return coupons as part of the selection process, said Marvin Swanson, director of international development at Southeast. Interested students also must pass the National Central Placement Examination, a competitive test that determines the number of Turkish students allowed to pursue a university degree.

As a result of the promotion, about 20 Turkish students are expected to be on the Southeast campus in August to begin study for the fall 1993 semester, Swanson said.

"The selection of Southeast for this important international program speaks very highly of our institution," said Kala Stroup, president of Southeast.

Southeast and the other Missouri institutions were selected to participate in the scholarship project after Hurriyet officials recently visited the state, Swanson said. Rifat Saricaoglu, founder of Merit Inc., an education trade company that assists Turkish students with enrolling in American universities, recommended that the newspaper officials visit Missouri. Saricaoglu and Swanson are business colleagues.

An important consideration in choosing the participating schools was the presence of "English as Second Language" courses on the campuses and the opportunity for students to enroll in several majors, receive professional support from international student advisers and live in communities that welcome international students.

"When you consider that the United States has some 3,000 institutions of higher education, the Istanbul group could have chosen any of them for this opportunity," Swanson said. "But after they visited Missouri, they saw Missouri's desire to host international students. The cooperation among the Missouri schools made this state very desirable," he added.

Swanson will serve as coordinator of the program in Missouri and will assist Istanbul administrators in the process of selecting students for the program.

During their first year in Missouri, most of the Turkish students will participate in intensive English programs. During the next four years, the students will work toward obtaining college degrees.

Hurriyet is one of the 10 largest newspapers in the world with daily circulation of 1.7 million in Turkey, Europe, the United States and Australia. The holding company for the newspaper also owns 22 magazines, a television station and a radio station. During the next two weeks, these outlets will be covering this major promotion, and Hurriyet will run special full-page articles on each of the participating universities, Swanson said.