Founded in 1961, the Department of City and Regional Planning at Middle East Technical University (METU) is the first planning school in Turkey. Since its foundation, the Department pursued following the agenda of other leading research universities across the globe and evaluating the developments in Turkey in light of contemporary scientific knowledge.

The Department's initial research studies focused on the most significant problems of Turkey in the 1960s: rural-to-urban migration and the effects of migration on cities. In the following years, located in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara, the effects of land-use decisions on the growth dynamics of the city expanded the research areas at the Department. Today, knowledge and information sectors are hosted largely in technology and innovation centers. The Department is located at METU campus, which includes the first and one of the largest technology and innovation centers in Turkey.

The comprehensive planning approach and the principle of meeting the public interest have shaped the academic ethos of the Department in all periods of history. The structure of the courses in the Department reflects the inter-disciplinary character of the field. It includes providing students the skills they need to obtain information from various disciplines, analyze and synthesize this information, and, ultimately, to make forecasts about the future and develop plans. In the first two years of their undergraduate education, our students take core courses in the discipline. In the final two years of their education, based on their interests, they are expected to specialize in a particular area of study.

The comprehensive nature of the field also reflects on the diversity of graduate programs in the Department. In addition to the Master's Program in City Planning, Urban Design and Regional Planning, our faculty contribute to various inter-disciplinary/joint programs, including the graduate programs in Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments, Settlement Archaeology, Geodetic and Geographic Information Technologies, Earthquake Studies, and Earth System Science.

As part of a leading research university, doctoral students in the Department of City and Regional Planning at METU, conducts extensive research in various areas. Here, we should emphasize the importance of our Department to cultivate academicians for future.

As we near the first quarter of the twenty-first century, the Department of City and Regional Planning at METU has always been ahead of its time, and continues it's committment to make human settlements better places to live.

Prof.Dr. Emine Yetişkul Şenbil

Chairperson