In the mid-1980s, upon requests from the Ministry of Education and the Council of Higher Education, the METU Administration developed a project for the English language training of prospective academicians who would pursue their PhD degrees abroad, and asked the School of Foreign Languages to implement this project. This Revolving Funds project (the Ministry of Education TOEFL Program), which continued without interruption for more than 15 years, paved the way to the third major mission undertaken by the School. The somewhat thorny initial implementation resulting from gaps in the legislation expanded in the late-1990s with the language courses offered to the public on weekends. Today, over 100 instructors regularly take part in such Revolving Funds projects, and thus, not only is an important community service provided, but also significant contributions are made to the METU RevolvingFunds.

Prepared by: Prof. Dr. Hüsnü ENGİNARLAR

Interviewees: Prof. Dr. Ayten BEAR, Doç. Dr. Joshua BEAR, Öğr. Gör. Nevin İNAL, Öğr. Gör. Naz DİNO