An Investigation on the Compulsory Arabic Preparatory Program in the Faculties of Theology in Turkey

Faculties of Theology in Turkey are institutions of higher religious education. These faculties linked to the Ministry of Education before 1980 and after 1980 to the Council of Higher Education are 4-year higher education colleges. There was a “Compulsory Arabic Preparatory Program” during the one academic year in the faculties’ schedule. A number of regulations have been made about these faculties’ schedule in the different time periods by the authorities. In this context, it had been implemented “Compulsory Arabic Preparatory Program” in all of the faculties’ syllabus form 1982 to 1997. This program had been removed in the period between1998-2010. In some faculties, there was “English Preparatory Course” as an elective or compulsory program between 2005 and 2010 academic year. Today, Compulsory Arabic Preparatory Program is brought into force from the beginning of the academic year 2009-2010, again. This program is carried out almost all of the theology faculties which have ongoing training in Turkey. Looking at short history of faculties of theology in turkey, it can be seen that it has been made a set of arrangements on these faculties by authorities. As far as we could observe, these arrangements showed that there is not an institutionalization and traditionalism in the higher religious education in Turkey as yet.