History

Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi (ODTÜ) / Middle East Technical University (METU) was founded in Ankara, Turkey on November 15th, 1956. It was originally called "Orta Doğu Yüksek Teknoloji Enstitüsü" with the objective to contribute to the development of Turkey and Middle Eastern countries by producing skilled individuals in the fields of natural and social sciences.

The Law on “Establishment and Preparations of METU” was passed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in January 1957 as the "Establishment Law" number 7307, which determined the special status of METU and gave it a legal status. This came into force on May 27, 1959.

It was Engr. Vecdi Diker who conceived the idea and played the most important role in the establishment of this university. With the help of some UN officials, he submitted the initial concept document and budget to Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, the Deputy Prime Minister in 1954. The government of Turkey headed by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes got into motion and approved the concept and the budget and got the matter rolling on a fast pace. With all preparations in place, the university came into being and the Faculty of Architecture was established in 1956. During the following two years, three more faculties were established – Engineering, Administrative Science, and Arts and Science. While some initial seed money of around $1.5 million was provided by the UN, the bulk of the funding for this university was from the Ministry of Education, government of Turkey.

Right from its conception, it was decided to have English as the medium of instruction due to the abundant available of literature on technology and sciences in English. In addition, Turkey had allied itself with English speaking Western countries like the USA and UK. It was felt that this would be the best path to a fast growth as a center of excellence.

The initial campus of the university was in rented buildings in the center of Ankara at Müdafaa Caddesi. And Kemal Kurdaş, an eminent educator became the first sole rector of the institution. Previously, this office was shared with one foreign counterpart. It was during his tenure that the university saw its real development and move to the new campus.

The first 30 students graduated in 1960. This was a landmark achievement.

In 1959, the Board of Trustees decided to establish a permanent campus. 11,000 acres (45 sq.km.) of land was allotted, located five miles (8Km) from the center of the city on the Ankara- Eskişehir highway. In a unique ceremony, government officials, faculty members and students walked to the campus to lay the foundation stone. President Celal Bayar, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, and Speaker of the National Assembly Refik Koraltan participated in operating the digging machine that laid the first foundation. It was a matter of pride for the nation.

The Turkish government allocated $12.5 million for construction of the initial buildings which were completed in 1963. These included administration building, departments, dormitories, laboratories, cafeteria, the library and other facilities including an internal road network. The university moved to its current, expansive, and beautiful campus in November 1963. The university land included Lake Eymir and a major portion of the campus was converted into a forest. The lake and its surroundings meet part of the rowing, fishing and picnicking needs of METU employees and students.

During that sixth year of its establishment, the student population had grown to 2,100 with a teaching staff of 300, 20% of whom were foreigners. 10% of the students were for foreign countries, primarily from the Middle East and Pakistan. By the late 1960s, the student population had grown to around 4,000. Over the decades, the university expanded its facilities massively and currently has a student population of 28,000.

For some more details on the early history of the university, please read the related pages in the book "Man's Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World", pages 202-208.

Rankings and awards:

METU has gained an enormous name for itself over these decades. Its alumni have been at the forefront of developments in Turkey and elsewhere. The university has been a center of excellence and research. As a result, it has consistently ranked domestically and internationally as the top-most university in Turkey, and very high up in international rankings.

During 2022, it ranked #1 in QS EECA rankings

It has also been ranking first in "Research Universities Performance Monitoring Index," for the past four years since 2017. This evaluates performance of the universities included in the "Mission Differentiation and Specialization on the Basis of Research Program" carried out by The Council of Higher Education within the scope of their project titled "Mission Differentiation and Specialization in Higher Education."

Between 2016 and 2020, METU received 49 awards in project competitions, 156 awards from scientific and professional studies, 35 other awards and 48 grants.

Last year, four researchers from METU have been given the Outstanding Young Scientists Award 2021 (GEBİP) by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA). Assoc. Prof. Emre Yüce from the Department of Physics and Asst. Prof. Ahmet Acar from the Department of Biological Sciences received the GEBİP award in the field of Life Sciences, Asst. Prof. Pelin Angın from the Department of Computer Engineering and Asst. Prof. Emre Büküşoğlu from the Department of Chemistry were deemed worthy of the award in the field of Engineering.

Programs

The university had also established a Preparatory School in the initial days to groom Turkish students in English language. This was a one-year program to bring the students up to speed to enable them to continue education in English.

The university offers programs leading to Bachelor of Science, Masters of Science and Doctorate degrees in all its faculties. It now has five faculties with 41 undergraduate programs.

It also has 108 graduate and 69 doctorate programs in Graduate Schools of Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Informatics, Applied Mathematics and Marine Sciences in addition to 48 interdisciplinary programs.

As the name suggests, educational programs at this university focus on all disciplines of engineering and natural sciences, but also offer highly respected programs in fields of economics, management sciences, architecture, urban planning, and social sciences.

METU Technology Park – Teknokent

METU established a technology park – known as ODTÜ Teknokent in 2007 within the premises of the university. As an organized research and business center, where academic, economic, and social infrastructure meets, this technology park hosts research institutions and industrial enterprises together in the same environment and facilitates them to do research, development and innovation activities through mutual transfer of know-how and technology for the sake of realizing value-added products. It provides the environment for joint R&D work and a path to commercialization of new inventions, products and software.

This park has provided patent support for more than 150 inventions, implemented different strategies for the development of more than 30 inventions in cooperation with national and/or international companies, and developed dozens of different projects with correct matching activities in university-industry cooperation. 444 companies have their presence in this park, employing 9,171 research staff. A total of 1,785 projects have been conducted in cooperation with the university. Their output has resulted in 1.7 billion dollars’ worth of exports and 21 billion Turkish Liras worth of technology sales.

Campuses, Infrastructure, and Activities

The main campus is in Ankara. The university also built a second campus in 1975 at Içel-Erdemli near Mersin on the southern coast of Turkey which houses the Graduate School of Marine Sciences. The first international campus was built in Northern Cyprus METU NCC in the year 2005.

The infrastructure of the main Ankara campus of the university has expanded tremendously over the years. At present, there are 374 classrooms and amphitheaters, 465 laboratories and a capacity of 7,286 students in the dormitories. On campus next to the dormitories, there is a shopping area, banks, post office and many eating places.

The library is world-class. It has 520,790 printed and 554,772 electronic books in its collection covering science, technology, social sciences, religion, philosophy, fine arts, law, medicine, architecture, and all other disciplines. It has 199,100 printed volumes of past periodicals and 76,671 e-journals, and currently subscribes to 107 journals. The library has 173 databases as well. ODTÜ Library has a reference collection containing statistics, maps, atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, bibliographic and biographic resources, guides, standards, almanacs, anthologies. Its collection includes masters and doctoral dissertations submitted to the university.

A wide range of sports facilities, including gymnasiums, tennis courts, basketball courts, football fields, jogging trails, Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool, and an outdoor swimming pool are available on campus for the METU community. These facilities cover an area of 60,535 sq.m. The university has 43 sports teams, and 104 student cultural clubs. During the past year, 231 scientific meetings and cultural events to cater to the social needs of students. There is a science and technology museum on campus which attracted 1,633 visitors.

The university also owns lodges off campus at Elmadağ, 30 kilometers from the main campus, and a resort at Uludağ near Bursa where mountain climbing and various skiing activities are possible.

Throughout the academic year, there are many interesting activities organized by student and the university. These include art exhibitions, concerts, recitals, cinema and theater events as well as a variety of social and academic activities. The Cultural and Convention Center hosts many of these events. One of the most favored social activities is the traditional International Spring Festival held in May every year