A BRIEF HISTORY

Activities regarding student affairs:

• were conducted in the barracks on the premises of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, which were used by METU during the first few years following its establishment in1956,
• were carried out in the building which is currently used as the Archeology Museum in 1963, when the University moved to the present day campus,
• were later on conducted in the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences building,
• are finally conducted in its current building in front of thePresidencyBuilding.

The administrators who served at the ˝Directorate of Student Affairs (Registrar’s Office)”, originally called ˝Directorate of Admission and Registration”, in chronological order are: 

Bonnie L. Sion          Assistant Registrar                1957-1960

E. H. K. Dibden         Registrar                               1961-1962

Pervin Adataş            Assistant Registrar                1962-1963

Güler Gönlübol          Assistant Registrar                1962-1963

Doğan İllez                Registrar                                1963-1968

Turan Baskan            Registrar                                1968-1989

Zerrin Koyunsağan    Registrar                                1990-1997

Nesrin Ünsal              Registrar                                1998- 2015

Sema Karaca             Registrar                                2016- up to the present

Middle East Technical University, which began offering higher education in 1956 in one department (Architecture) to 50 students, currently conducts education in 3 campuses (Ankara, İçel-Erdemli and Northern Cyprus), 5 faculties, 5 graduate schools, and 2 schools. The total student number is about 26.500.

Around 50 members of staff presently work in the Registrar’s Office (onAnkaraCampus), which started to offer services in 1956 with only 1 staff member.

With the exception of the Northern Cyprus Campus, student affairs are conducted exclusively by the Registrar’s Office in a centralized manner.

From the pages of history…

• Student grades, which are currently stored in our archives, used to be recorded by hand in hardcover note-books by the course instructors. 
• Students were required to present revenue stamps as payment for transcripts, student ID cards, and the like. 
• Student transcripts, which were printed in four copies, used to be cut up by the staff with devices similar to a guillotine. 
• Students’ Cumulative Grade Point Averages used to be calculated using FACIT calculating machines.
• Mechanical typewriters, which are currently exhibited at the METU Science and Technology Museum, were used.
• Student transcripts were written line by line and then checked. The original copies were stored in a file and their xerox copies were given to students upon request.
• Photos to be used for student ID cards used to be cut and pasted one by one by hand.