Türkiye Bursları Turkish Language (TÖMER) Guide 2027

The Compulsory TÖMER Year

Every Türkiye Bursları scholar without a C1 Turkish certificate takes a one-year Turkish preparatory course at a TÖMER (Türkçe Öğretim Merkezi, a university Turkish teaching centre) before starting their degree — even if the programme is taught in English, Arabic or French.

The only exemptions

• If you already hold a C1 Turkish certificate from the Yunus Emre Institute or a Turkish university's language centre, you skip the prep year.
• If you're placed in a foreign-language programme, YTB may let you start your department straight away — but you must still submit the required Turkish certificate before you finish your degree.

The C1 Requirement

Turkish levels follow the CEFR framework, and the prep year is completed only when you get a C1 certificate. Here's what each level means in practice:

1. A1

   Basic greetings, ordering food, asking directions. "Merhaba, bir çay lütfen."

2. A2

   Simple conversations, past tense, shopping, describing your day.

3. B1

   Express opinions, understand the main points of clear speech, write simple texts.

4. B2

   Interact fluently, understand complex texts on familiar topics, produce detailed writing.

5. C1

   Advanced: understand demanding texts, express ideas fluently and use the language flexibly for academic purposes. This is the target.

The TÖMER-to-Academic-Turkish Gap

Passing C1 is not the same as academic fluency.

TÖMER teaches you general and test Turkish (plus 140 hours of academic Turkish). But real academic Turkish — reading dense textbooks, writing research papers, following fast lectures full of field-specific vocabulary — is a different beast.

By an unofficial figure shared among scholars (not from YTB), 37% of TB scholars struggle with academic Turkish for 1–2 years after TÖMER. This is especially hard in STEM fields with heavy Turkish-language coursework.

Attendance and Failure Rules

YTB's rules are stricter than many scholars expect:

• Absence over 20 hours in a month cuts that month's stipend by 25%.
• More than 100 lesson hours missed in total without an excuse or permission cancels the scholarship.
• Failing the prep year freezes your scholarship until you submit a C1 certificate and start your degree.
• No C1 by the end of the second year and the scholarship is cancelled.

Cancellation is rare, but it happens, particularly to students whose native language is very distant from Turkish (for example East Asian and some African languages).

Survival Tips for TÖMER

Next: Required Documents

Make sure you have all required documents ready before you apply — see the documents checklist.