The price for a single meal table d'hote in the cafeteria has been and currently is 1.95 TL since October 1^st, 2012.

As a discount for our students that regularly utilize the cafeteria services, the price for a single meal table d'hote is reduced to 1.65 TL if they have used the cafeteria more than 12 times within the last 30 days.

Additionally, Cafeteria Cafe is open until 23:30 after food service for our students to utilize it as a study hall.

In the “Bu Gençlikte İŞ Var!” Best Business Ideas Competition operated by TÜSİAD with the aim of encouraging young entrepreneurs, students Beliz Bediz from METU Bioinformatics Department and Yunus Can Esmeroğlu from METU Biology Department have placed first with their project “Heavy Metal Sweepers”.

Under the guidance of Limak Holding Inc. board member Ebru Özdemir, the team from METU, with the idea of “Indefinite Neutralization of Toxic Heavy Metals via Confinement by Endospore-forming Bacteria”, has obtained the first place among 154 new business ideas from 48 universities. Besides the money award, the team was also awarded with a virtual office for developing the plan further, an e-trading internet service, accounting and financial consulting and judicial consulting.

Initiated at the beginning of November 2012, following the earthquake in Van, by Eymir Culture Foundation, “METU at Van” campaign has achieved its initial goals thanks to intense support received. Having its foundations built in December 29^th, 2011, The Learning Unit with a capacity of 500 in a 2 story setting, was made available to the Yüzüncü Yıl University students with a glorious opening ceremony in March 24^th, 2012.

Following the resumption of education in Yüzüncü Yıl University, a Female Dormitory with a capacity of 192 in 2 stories will be opened in November 9^th,2012 at 13:30 with a formal opening ceremony. The construction of dormitory was finalized at August, 2012.

For more information about the past, the present and the future of the campaign and to support it, visit http://odtuvanda.org/.

English Times Higher Education (THE) has announced the results of "World University Rankings Top 400 2012-2013" on October 3^rd, 2012. Five Turkish universities are included in the list which ranks California Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Oxford University as first, second and third.

No Turkish universities were placed in the first 200 this year. While the first 200 universities were ranked ordered by their scores, the ones after 200were grouped and listed alphabetically within their groups. METU was placed in the 201-225, Bilkent University and Koç University were placed in the 226-250 and Boğaziçi University and İTÜ were placed in the 276-300 groups.

The criteria used in THE rankings are "Research (budget and reputation)", "Impact of Research (citations)", "Teaching and learning environment", "Income from the industry" and "International dimension". The overall ranking score is determined by taking the weighted mean of the scoresof these criteria. With respect to the overall score achieved, METU ranked 203^rd, Bilkent University ranked 238^th, Koç University ranked 242^nd, Boğaziçi University ranked 276^th and İTÜ ranked 290^th in the world.

Amongst the five Turkish universities, METU, achieved the highest scores in "Research (budget and volume)" and "Teaching: the learning environment" criteria, Koç University, in "Impact of research" and "International dimension" criteria, and İTÜ, in "Industry income: innovation" criteria. The data about "Research", "Teaching and learning environment" and "Impact of research" criteria are mostly collected from THE general databases and surveys while "Income from the industry" and "International dimension" criteria depend mostly on universities' declarations. I congratulate our academic and administrative personnel, who continuously put effort into the improvement of Middle East Technical University, and express my gratitude to them.

With Regards,
Prof.Dr. Ahmet Acar
The President of METU