Türkiye’deki yabancı uyruklu öğrencilerin ülkemiz hakkındaki izlenimleri ve değerlendirmeleri, Türkiye’nin uluslararası imajı açısından büyük önem arz etmektedir. Bu tespitten hareketle, bu çalışmada Kayseri ili merkez Kocasinan ilçesi Mustafa Germirli Anadolu İmam Hatip Lisesinde okuyan yabancı uyruklu öğrencilerin Kayseri, Türkiye ve İslam algısı araştırılmıştır. Çalışmanın amacı, yabancı öğrencilerin Ülkemiz, Kayseri ve İslam dini hakkındaki görüşlerini tespit ederek karar merciindeki kişilere öğrenci memnuniyetini artırıcı geri besleme sağlamaktır. Araştırmada anket çalışmasına yer verilmiş ve elde edilen veriler istatistiki olarak yorumlanmıştır. Anket uygulamasının yanı sıra araştırma alanını okuyucuya daha iyi tanıtmak ve toplanan verilerin doğruluğunu kontrol etmek amacıyla paydaş kurum yetkilileri, okul yöneticileri ve öğretmenlerle de görüşülmüştür. Yapılan çalışma sonucunda; Mustafa Germirli Anadolu İmam Hatip Lisesinde okuyan öğrencilerin, Kayseri ve Türkiye hakkında olumlu algılara sahip oldukları görülmüştür. Aynı sonuç İslam algısı için de geçerlidir. Buna göre öğrencilerin dini yaşantı ve tutumları, Türkiye’ye geldikten sonra aldıkları eğitimin de etkisiyle olumlu yönde değişmiştir.

1. Introduction Searching and acquiring knowledge is a universal effort for the mankind. The search of knowledge which remained in a local/national level due to the limitations of the lack of means of transportation and communication in the past has gained a global qualification owing to the technological advancements in today’s world. Now people, in a world where the physical boundaries disappear, would like to provide knowledge from the educational institutions offering it in a better condition and qualification. Demand for knowledge and the value attributed to knowledge have raised so much that even a new kind of society, called “Information Society”, has been mentioned. Due to this change occurred in the social structure, a significant increase has been observed particulary in the movement of international students in the world tertiary education. This increase has led to a big competititon and important strategical changes among the countries. It can’t be thought that Turkey will get away from this competition seen in the field of educaton. Turkey is in a position that has to take the advantages of its own geostrategical location and review its educational policies since the international students offer significant opportunities in numerous fields for the countries where they study. Here are some of these benefits: making contribution to the national economy with the money they spend, providing intercultural dialog and tolerance within the country due to the differences they have and being a voluntary ambassador for the country where they study due to the sympathy they feel following their graduations. However, a positive country image is needed in the international arena at first in order to be able to attract the foreign students. When considered in this context, investigating the perceptions of the students who come from various countries and study in Turkey and providing feedback to the decision makers are of the utmost importance. 2. The Subject of the Study In this study, Kayseri, Turkey and İslam perceptions of the foreign students who came from different countries and study in the international Mustafa Germirli Anatolian İmam Hatip High School (AIHHS) were examined. 3. The Purpose of the Study The aim of this study is to provide feedback for the decision makers by determining the perceptions of the foreign students on Kayseri, Turkey and Islam so as to strengthen the country’s outer image and maximize student’s satisfactions. 4. The Significance of the Study Learning perceptions of foreign students has a strategical importance in terms of Turkey’s outer image. Due to the importance of this issue, lots of scientific studies have been carried out regarding the foreign students in Turkey. But, the subject of these studies are mainly their adaptation to the Turkish Higher Education Sytem and their difficulties on learning Turkish Language. Also, mostly foreign students came from Turkic Republics have been chosen as a study group in these studies. Whereas our study examined the perceptions of the foreign students attending middle education and our study group included not only Turkic students but also other foreign students coming from different countries. 5. Methodology A survey was used mainly in this study. And in this context, a questionnaire with 57 questions was conducted to 181 students which were selected from 388 male students. The questions in the survey were prepared in a way that measure the perceptions of the students regarding Kayseri, Turkey and İslam. The data obtained from the survey was analyzed after being transferred to a computer media. SPSS 21 for Windows (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software was used for analyzing the data. 6. Results 6.1. Perception of Kayseri According to the data obtained from the survey, a majority of the students feels themselves comfortable in Kayseri and they have adapted Kayseri easily. The students have close relationships with Kayseri