The Middle East Technical University, established in 1956, is devoted to the pursuit and application of knowledge for the social, cultural, economic, scientific and technological development of our society and mankind through achievements in teaching, research and community service that are of highest international standards.
There are five faculties comprised of 37 departments, 5 institutions, 34 research centers and more than 150 laboratories within a campus area of over 4500 hectares. METU is one of Turkey's most competitive universities w ith a number of 21.000 students of which 4.300 studying at master’s programmes and 1500 at doctorate programmes, over 2500 lecturers (70% are foreign educated, 5% are foreigners), 550 articles published in abroad and 800 papers. Each year, among the students taking the National University Entrance Examination, over 1/3 of the 1000 applicants with the highest scores attend METU. Due to the high demand towards METU is so great, most of our departments accept only the top 1% of the approximately 1.5 million applicants taking the National University Entrance Examination. There have been more than hundred research projects still being executed in University structure which 21 of them are within the scope of European Union Sixth Framework Programme.
METU strives to maintain a high standard of education by international standards. Several departments in the Engineering Faculty have been evaluated, at METU's request, by the "Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)" and their programs were given approval by this Board. Because of METU's effort to maintain international standards, the "Faculty of Engineering" was awarded in 1977 the "Silver Badge of Honor" by the "UNESCO International Center for Engineering Education" and the "Meritorious Achievement Award in Accreditation Activities" by the "American Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers".
METU has established the METU-SMIDO Technology Development Center, the most successful Technology Development Center in Turkey, together with SMIDO in 1992. Following the successful results, in order to improve the technological infrastructure of the country, by the year 2001 it has established the first technopolis in Turkey by considering the rapid development of technology and information sector in recent years and since then METU has been qualified as the leader in establishment of a technopolis.
Since its foundation METU has been one of the leader research universities in Turkey Therefore it has been in close cooperation with several organizations active in different sectors of the industry. R&D infrastructure, knowledge pool and experienced expert team of METU play an important role in creating strong links between the Technopolis companies and the university. The proximity to the researchers and research opportunities which are the the main components of R&D studies together with the utilization of existing facilities such as laboratory and library are also provided. .
