The mission of the Middle East Technical University is to reach, produce, apply and promote knowledge, and to educate individuals with that knowledge for the social, cultural, economic, scientific and technological development of our society and humanity. This is to be done by bringing teaching, research and social services up to universal standards.

1. Scientific Approach
It is unconditionally accepted that a university’s mission is to ensure the understanding of current knowledge and the discovery of new knowledge. On this subject, there should be no hindrance to the discovery and sharing of new knowledge. An environment should be created in which research, creativity and student self-development can be fostered.

2. Academic Freedom
The right to determine how, to whom, and by whom knowledge is taught is paramount. The university is opposed to dogmatic thought and ideas, under the principle of the scientific approach. The right to honest inquiry and legal protest is acknowledged and guaranteed by law.

3. Interdisciplinary Approach
Interdisciplinary education and research are encouraged. The university enables academic staff to work on educational and research projects with educational centres and institutes outside their own academic units.

4. Lifelong Education
The university encourages lifelong education for its own staff, graduates, and people from all walks of life, and provides these people with new scientific knowledge. In order that the people of our country benefit more effectively and efficiently from METU’s experience and culture, the university develops and applies exemplary educational models.

5. The Training of Qualified People
For the good of society, the university aims to develop students with humane and moral values, the skills for leadership, open-mindedness, and the habit of continuously re-educating themselves. Graduates are oriented to employ the skills they have learned at METU in the workplace. Students are encouraged to become scientists, and thus be among the nation’s most important human resources.

6. Student Support
The duty to provide the necessary support in order to prevent those students with material difficulties from being deprived of higher education is acknowledged.

7. Communication with Society
The university aims to continue performing its functions in order to benefit every sector of society and remain in contact with its environment. The university is concerned with the finding and promoting of solutions to the problems of our nation, region and the international community. It plays a prominent role in providing communication in scientific, cultural and social fields.

8. Involved Administration
The university encourages its academic staff, departments and administrative units to prepare, assess and continuously evaluate plans and concrete strategies in order to keep up with rapid change and globalization. To this end, an administrative policy which is based on knowledge, the delegation of duties and responsibilities, democratic principles, involvement, dynamism, flexibility and transparency is pursued. Respect for the individual and tolerance are our foremost concerns.

The language of instruction at METU is English.

Middle East Technical University (METU), a state university founded in 1956, currently has over 22,000 students of which 4400 are in masters and 2200 are in doctorate programs.

METU hosts about 1350 international students from nearly 65 different countries studying toward myriad of academic degrees.

METU, with 120 Erasmus agreements and 130 bilateral exchange and cooperation agreements with universities in third countries annually sends 250 students and hosts 200 students and 60 teaching staff/researchers.

METU has 47 undergraduate programs within 5 faculties. Additionally, there are 5 Graduate Schools with 97 masters and 55 doctorate programs and a "School of Foreign Languages" which includes the English Preparatory Department. 10 undergraduate programs (including 1 international program) are offered in connection with METU Northern Cyprus Campus.

The academic year in METU is divided into two semesters. The first term of the academic year generally begins on the last week of September and ends in the middle of January. The second term begins in the middle of February and ends in mid June. METU also has a summer school with regular courses and an International Summer School with courses of special interest to international students.

Since its foundation, METU, as an international research university, has been the leading university in Turkey in terms of depth and breadth of international ties and the amount of funds generated from international research projects. METU actively took part in and managed many Med-Campus, MEDA, COST, Eureka, NASA, NATO, NSF, UN, World Bank, Jean Monnet, INCO, EUMEDIS, 6^th Framework, Erasmus Mundus ECW, Leonardo and Socrates projects. METU has also involved in 55 different FP6 projects including coordination of 12 FP6 and 3 Networks of Excellence projects. METU has 14 international joint degree programmes with European and American universities at undergraduate and graduate level.

English as the language of instruction in all its degree programs has greatly facilitated METU's efforts to accommodate international students and researchers. METU hosts about 1350 international students from nearly 65 different countries studying toward myriad of academic degrees.

METU, with 120 Erasmus agreements and 130 bilateral exchange and cooperation agreements with universities in third countries (i.e., in Central Asia, Middle East, North America, Australia, Far East and Pacific Region), annually sends 250 students and 85 teaching staff and hosts 200 students and 60 teaching staff/researchers.

METU is a member of many associations and networks dealing with international education and exchange such as EUA, EAIE, IIE, GE3, CEASAR, SEFI, CIEE. METU actively participates in AIESEC and IAESTE summer internship programs.

METU has always sought external assessment, accreditation and certification by international organizations, and been committed to a "quality culture". The University has completed the process of "Institutional Evaluation" by the EUA in 2002. As a part of its efforts to ascertain world-quality education, in 1991 METU initiated a long-term program to have all its engineering programs accredited by ABET. The Engineering Faculty now has all its thirteen undergraduate programs declared as "substantially equivalent" to the ABET accredited programs in the USA.

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.

METU is one of Turkey's most competitive universities. 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. Over 40% of METU's students go on to graduate school.

The campus area is 4500 hectares and the forest area is 3043 hectares, including Lake Eymir, about 20 kilometers from the centrum of Ankara. The lake is available to METU students for rowing, fishing, picnicking and general recreational activities. Bus service is provided from the METU main campus and locations in the city to the lake.

The main part of the campus has dormitory capacity for approximately 6000 students who benefit from a shopping area, banks, post office and many eating places. Also a wide variety of sports facilities, including gymnasiums, tennis courts, basketball and football fields, jogging trails, olympic-size indoor swimming pool, and an outdoor swimming pool are available on METU campus. Among off campus facilities, METU has lodges at Elmadag, 30 kilometers from the METU campus, and a resort at Uludag near Bursa where mountain climbing and various skiing activities are possible.

Throughout the academic year, students can enjoy 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 and many more. One of the most favored social activities is the traditional International Spring Festival held in May.

Estimated living expenses for students are minimally $350.00 to $400.00 (US dollars) per month. Books and other administrative fees are approximately $100.00 to $150.00 per semester. Special Students pay $100.00 per credit hour. With one course generally 3 to 4 credit hours per semester, special students can expect to pay from $300.00 to $400.00 per course.