Sabanci University''s Faculty of Management, Istanbul, together with Hedef Alliance, Turkey''s largest distributor of pharmaceuticals, have agreed details for an international scholarship award, believed to be the first of its kind in Turkey.

Under the Hedef Alliance regional neighbour scholarship programme, Hedef will, from September, fully fund one student to attend Sabanci University''s MBA programme. The student will be chosen from countries close to where the company has operations, such as Egypt, Algeria, Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Bulgaria.

"Giving scholarships to international students to study in Turkey (unless they are at a state school, where there is no tuition fee)

makes this a first, I am pretty sure," says Nakiye Boyacigiller, dean of the faculty of management at Sabanci.

The $25,500 award for each year of the two-year programme is both "an important mechanism to internationalise our MBA programme, as well asa reflection of the growing understanding that Turkey needs to internationalise its firms and look for external markets", Prof Boyacigiller adds.

The scholarship programme is part of Hedef Alliance''s efforts to develop managers for its international operations since it isexpanding rapidly in eastern Europe, the Middle East and north Africa.

"For Hedef Alliance, this is not only a way to support education but also a way to actively support the development of managers for its international operations," the company said.

The scholarship recipient is expected to have a summer internship at Hedef Alliance and then work for the company for a period on graduation.

Selection of the scholarship recipient, which will be announced this summer, will itself be a learning process, says Prof Boyacigiller.

"We are still figuring this out. This is going to be a mechanism for us to learn how to expand internationally. We are also counting on our network of colleagues in the target countries to help us spread the word," she adds.

www.sabanciuniv. edu

Faculty of Management: http://www.sabanciu niv.edu/ybf/ eng/

Contacts: http://www.sabanciu niv.edu/eng/ ?iletisim/ iletisim. php

Prospective students: studentinfo@ sabanciuniv. edu]