Middle East Technical University
Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi | |
| Motto | Scientia Dux Vitae Certissimus (Latin) |
|---|---|
Motto in English | Science is the truest guide in life |
| Type | Public |
| Established | November 15, 1956 |
| Budget | $134 million (2024) |
| President | Ahmet Yozgatlıgil |
Academic staff | 1,892 |
| Students | 23,395 |
| Undergraduates | 18,456 |
| Postgraduates | 4,546 |
| Location | |
| Campus | Suburban, 11,100 acres (4,500 ha, 45 km²) |
| Language | English |
| Other campuses | |
| Colors | Red White |
| Nickname | METU Falcons (American football) |
| Affiliations | |
| Website | metu.edu.tr metu.edu |
| University rankings | |
|---|---|
| Global – Overall | |
| QS World | 285 (2025) |
| THE World | 351–400 (2025) |
| National – Overall | |
| QS National | 1 (2025) |
| THE National | 1 (2025) |
Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, ODTÜ) is a prestigious public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. As Turkey’s top ranked university, they focus on research and education in engineering, natural sciences and social sciences, offering 41 undergraduate programs across five faculties and 105 master's and 70 doctoral programs through five graduate schools. The main campus of METU spans an area of 11,100 acres (4,500 ha), comprising, in addition to academic and auxiliary facilities, a forest area of 7,500 acres (3,000 ha), and the natural Lake Eymir. METU has more than 120,000 alumni worldwide. The official language of instruction at METU is English.
Over one third of the 1,000 highest scoring students in the national university entrance examination choose to enroll in METU; most of its departments accept the top 0.1% of the nearly 3 million applicants. METU had the greatest share in national research funding by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) in the last five years, and it is the leading university in Turkey in terms of the number of European Union Framework Programme (FP) projects participation. Over 40% of METU's undergraduate alumni choose to pursue graduate studies.