Middle East Technical University, a state university, was founded in 1956 to contribute to the development of
Turkey and Middle East countries and especially to train people so as to create a skilled workforce in the fields of natural and social sciences. 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. The language of instruction at METU is English. There are 152 graduate programs available in Graduate Schools of Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Informatics, Applied Mathematics and Marine Sciences Graduate Schools. Marine Sciences conducts the academic program studies at Içel-Erdemli. METU currently has over 22,000 students of which 4400 are in masters and 2200 are in doctorate programs.