PART 1

Aim, Scope, Basis, and Definitions of Terms

Aim

ARTICLE 1 – (1) The aim of this directive is to regulate the principles concerning student transfers to Middle East Technical University’s (METU) Bachelor’s degree programs. 

Scope

ARTICLE 2 – (1) This directive incorporates the provisions concerning the transfer of students between Bachelor’s degree programs at METU and other institutions of higher education whose equivalency is recognized by the Higher Education Council.

Basis

ARTICLE 3 – (1) This directive is based on The Regulation for Student Transfer Between Associate Degree and Bachelor’s Degree Programs, Double Major and Minor Programs and Course Credit Transfers Between Institutions of Higher Education published in the Official Gazette No.27561, dated 24 April 2010.  

Definitions of Terms

ARTICLE 4 – (1) Wherever in this directive the below terms appear, they shall be taken to refer to the following:

a) Concerned administrative board: Faculty and school administrative boards at Middle East Technical University

b) EPE: METU School of Foreign Languages English Proficiency Exam 

c) President: The President of the Middle East Technical University

d) Senate: The Middle East Technical University Senate

e) University / METU: Middle East Technical University

f) Regulation: The Regulation for Student Transfer Between Associate Degree and Bachelor’s Degree Programs, Double Major and Minor Programs and Course Credit Transfer Between Institutions of Higher Education

 

PART 2

English Proficiency and Quotas

English proficiency

ARTICLE 5 - (1) Applicants from outside METU are required to document their English proficiency during the application.

(2) Applicants may present a valid score obtained on METU-EPE or any other exam recommended by the SFL and approved as equivalent by the Senate.

(3) The following procedures are applied for the transfer of the candidates who apply for the quotas for transfers through the Central Placement Examination Score from the institutions of higher education whose medium of instruction is either Turkish or partially a foreign language (30% English) and whose medium of instruction is entirely either English or another foreign language (French, Germany, etc.):

a) Provided that they apply to be transferred to the same department at METU, applicants who are studying in the Preparatory School or those who are in their first year in an institution of higher education where the medium of instruction is Turkish or partially English (30%) and cannot provide a document proving their English proficiency can be admitted to the Preparatory School at METU. The maximum duration of study at the Preparatory School is one year if the student has already spent a year at the Preparatory School before; it is two years if the student has not been to the Preparatory School before. Applicants in their second year or more cannot be admitted to the Preparatory School at METU. Instead, they are required to provide a proficiency exam score accepted by the METU Senate.

b) Provided that they apply to be transferred to a different department at METU from theirs, applicants who are studying in an institution of higher education where the medium of instruction is Turkish or partially English (30%) and cannot provide a document proving their English proficiency can be admitted to the Preparatory School at METU regardless of what year students they are. The maximum duration of study at the Preparatory School is one year if the student has already spent a year at the Preparatory School before; it is two years if the student has not been to the Preparatory School before.

c) Applicants who are studying in the Preparatory School or those who are in their first year in a higher educational institution where the medium of instruction is entirely English or another foreign language (French, German, etc.) and cannot provide a document proving their English proficiency can be admitted to the Preparatory School at METU. The maximum duration of study at the Preparatory School is one year if the student has already spent a year at the Preparatory School before; it is two years if the student has not been to the Preparatory School before. Applicants in their second year or more cannot be admitted to the Preparatory School at METU. Instead, they are required to provide a proficiency exam score accepted by the METU Senate.

Quotas

ARTICLE 6 - (1) Transfer quotas are set and announced within the framework of the concerned regulation.

(2) Only intra-institutional general and special transfer quotas for the undergraduate programs are announced for the spring semester.

(3) No change in quotas or transfer between quotas is possible after the quotas have been announced. 

(4) Leaving the quotas empty, despite a sufficient number of applications, on academic grounds is at the discretion of the concerned administrative board by recommendation of the concerned Department Chair.

Inter-institutional quotas

ARTICLE 7 - (1) Inter-institutional quotas are the quotas set by the Higher Education Council for successful students whose program is equivalent to the program they are applying to.  

(2) The equivalency of the programs is determined by the concerned administrative boards by recommendation of the concerned department chairs, taking into consideration the regular periods of study of each program, ÖSYM score types, curriculums of the programs, etc. 

(3)  Provided that they meet the application requirements, the below mentioned students may be included within the scope of inter-institutional transfer quotas and evaluated.

a) Students with Turkish and TRNC citizenship applying from domestic higher education institutions 

b) Undergraduate students who have been dismissed from or who are currently attending Turkish Armed Forces, Turkish Police Academy and affiliated institutions of higher education 

c) International students who are studying in a Turkish higher education institution

(4) Inter-institutional quotas are not allotted for the preparatory class of the undergraduate programs and the first two and last two semesters of the undergraduate programs. 

Intra-institutional general quota  

ARTICLE 8 – (1) The intra-institutional general quota is the quota set by the concerned administrative board for successful undergraduate students applying from Ankara and Northern Cyprus Campuses whose program is equivalent to the program they are applying to.     

(2) Quotas are not allotted for the preparatory class and the first two and last two semesters of the undergraduate programs.  

Intra-institutional special quota   

ARTICLE 9 – (1) The intra-institutional special quota is the quota set by the concerned administrative board for undergraduate students applying from Ankara and Northern Cyprus Campuses who, on the grounds of poor academic standing and/or failure to meet the requirements for adjustment to the program, are not eligible for or cannot benefit from the “intra-institutional quota”.

(2) The purpose of this quota is to offer METU students who have chosen programs not compatible with their personal abilities during the University Entrance Exam, the opportunity to change programs.

(3) The intra-institutional special quota is not allotted for the preparatory class and the last two semesters of the undergraduate programs.

(4) The intra-institutional quota (the sum of the intra-institutional general and special quotas) announced each year may not exceed 15 percent of the overall prescribed in the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM ) Guide. 

 

Quotas for international students applying from abroad

ARTICLE 10 – (1) Quotas for international students applying from abroad are the quotas set by the concerned administrative boards for successful international undergraduate students studying at an equivalent program of an institution of higher education outside Turkey whose equivalency is recognized by the Higher Education Council.   

(2) Transfer quotas for international students are not allotted for the preparatory class of the undergraduate programs and the first two and last two semesters of the undergraduate programs. 

(3) Transfer quotas for international students cannot exceed 15% of the international students' quota of the related program. For the calculation of 15%, numbers below 1 are round to 1.

The quota for special cases

ARTICLE 11 – (1) The transfer quota for special cases is considered independently of the other types of quota and is provided for the students in the following categories on condition that they fulfill the application requirements:

a) In the event that they are continuously appointed elsewhere, civil servants assigned to perform essential and permanent public services and their dependent spouses and children,

b) The children of civil servants who return to Turkey due to the termination of their diplomatic service abroad, and the children of returnee workers,    

c) The children of foreign diplomats serving in Turkey.

(2) The quota for special cases cannot exceed 20 percent of the inter-institutional quota (provided that it is at least 1).     

(3) Quotas for special cases are not allotted for the preparatory class of the undergraduate programs the first two and last two semesters of the undergraduate programs. 

Quotas for Transfers through the Central Placement Examination Score

ARTICLE 12-(1) The Quota for transfers through the Central Placement Examination Score refers to the horizontal transfer quota determined for cases wherein the central placement exam score of the student in the year he/she was admitted to the higher education institution is equal to, or higher than the general quota base score for the program they now want to transfer to.

 

PART 3

Transfer Requirements, Documents Required for Application, Application Dates and Location 

 

Application requirements for the inter-institutional transfer quota   

ARTICLE 13 – (1) Applicants must fulfill the following requirements to be eligible for inter-institutional transfer:

a) The students must be registered in an equivalent program or be on a leave status at the time of application. 

b) The students must have completed at least two semesters in their current program (excluding the English Preparatory Class).

c) Students must have taken and passed all the required courses in the curriculum of their current program within the completed semesters. The minimum required passing grades are DD or an equivalent grade for courses with credit, and S or an equivalent grade for non-credit courses. The application of students who have not taken all the courses in the curriculum of their program during the semesters they were registered, or have failed in any of those courses (with the letter grades FF, FD, NA, U, I, W or an equivalent grade) will not be taken into consideration.    

d) The Cumulative GPA of students must be minimum 2.50/4.00 (a minimum grade of 75/ 100 on the number system).

e) Students must have fulfilled other requirements, if any (interview, portfolio, etc.), of the program they want to transfer to.

Application requirements for intra-institutional transfer general quota 

ARTICLE 14 – The application requirements for the intra-institutional transfer general quota are the same as those for inter-institutional transfer quota. 

Application criteria for intra-institutional transfer special quota

ARTICLE 15 – (1) Applicants must fulfill the following criteria to be eligible for this type of quota:

a) The students’ YGS/LYS score for the year they were admitted to their current program must be equal to, or higher than that year’s minimum general quota YGS/LYS score of the program they are applying to.

b) The students must be registered in an undergraduate program at METU or be on leave status at the time of application, and regardless of whatever reason, they must not have been dismissed from the program by the end of that semester. 

c) The students must have completed a minimum of two semesters and a maximum of 6 semesters (excluding the English Preparatory Class) in their current undergraduate program.

d) The students must have passed all the credit courses they have taken (with a minimum letter grade of DD) in the program they are currently registered.

e) The Cumulative GPA of students must be minimum 1.25/4.00.

f) Students must have fulfilled other requirements, if any (interview, portfolio, etc.), of the program they want to transfer to.

Application requirements for international student quota

ARTICLE 16 – (1) In addition to the requirements in the Directive for International Student Admissions and Registrations to Undergraduate Programs, applicants must meet the following requirements to be eligible for this type of quota:

a) The applicants must be registered (as students) in an equivalent institution of higher education at the time of application.  

b) The students must have completed at least two semesters in their current undergraduate program.

c) Students must have obtained at least DD or an equivalent grade in the courses with credit, and S or an equivalent grade in the non-credit courses they have taken in their registered programs.

d) The Cumulative GPA of students must be minimum 2.50 /4.00 or an equivalent score.

e) Students must have fulfilled other requirements, if any (interview, portfolio, etc.), of the program they want to transfer to.

f) For an applicant to be transferred from an institution of higher education abroad to a program in our country with a ranking score requirement; the university that the student is enrolled in must be among the top four hundred universities worldwide in the year the student enrolled according to the rankings of the institutions/organizations accepted by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), and the student must meet the grade requirements as well as term/year requirements specified by YÖK Rules and Regulations regarding student transfers.

g) If the student is enrolled in an institution of higher education that is not among the top four hundred universities worldwide, the following procedures are applied:

1. Applicants who completed their high school education in Turkey must have taken the Central Placement Examination, and their ranking score obtained from the exam in the year they enrolled in their university must meet the score required by the program they apply for to transfer.
2. Applicants who have completed at least the last two years of their high school education abroad must have successfully completed at least four semesters in the program they are already enrolled in, excluding the semesters they spent at the preparatory school.

Application requirements for the quota for special cases

ARTICLE 17 – (1) Applicants must fulfill the following requirements to be eligible for this type of quota:

a) In the event that civil servants assigned to perform essential and permanent public services are continuously appointed elsewhere, their applications and the applications of their dependent spouses and children,

(1) The applicants must be registered (as students) in an equivalent institution of higher education at the time of application. 

(2) The students must have completed at least two semesters in their current undergraduate program.

(3) Students must have obtained at least DD or an equivalent grade in the courses with credit, and S or an equivalent grade in the non-credit courses they have taken in their registered programs.

(4) The Cumulative GPA of students must be minimum 2.50 /4.00 or an equivalent score.

(5) The students’ ÖSYM score for the year they were admitted to their current program must be equal to, or higher than that year’s minimum general quota ÖSYM score of the program they are applying to.

(6) Students must have fulfilled other requirements, if any (interview, portfolio, etc.), of the program they want to transfer to.

b) In the applications of the children of civil servants who return to Turkey due to the termination of their diplomatic service abroad, and the children of returnee workers;

(1) Students who have completed their entire high school education abroad must fulfill the application requirements for the quota for international students applying from abroad.  

(2) Students who have completed their high school education in Turkey and those who have completed part of their high school education abroad must fulfill the application requirements for the inter-institutional transfer quota.   

c) To be eligible for application, the children of foreign diplomats serving in Turkey must fulfill the application requirements for the quota for international students applying from abroad.    

Application criteria regarding quotas for transfers through the Central Placement Examination Score

Article 18- (1) To be eligible to apply within this scope, the candidate should fulfill the requirements given below.

a) At the time of application, the candidate must be enrolled in an equivalent program or be on leave (with student status).

b) The candidate’s central placement score in the year s/he was admitted to the higher education institution must be equal or higher than the general quota base score for the same year of the program s/he now wishes to transfer to.

c) Students who have been placed through the Vertical Transfer Exam (DGS) can only apply for a transfer to higher education undergraduate programs which they may choose from the DGS guidelines.

The requirements concerning scores in ÖSYM and equivalent scores

ARTICLE 19 – (1) Applicants placed into their current programs through ÖSYM must apply with their ÖSYM score report that belongs to the year when they were placed in university.       

(2)  Students who were admitted to their current programs by applying for the international students from abroad quota and those who apply from a higher education institution abroad must apply with documents indicated in Middle East Technical University Directive For International Student Applications, Admissions and Registrations to Graduate Programs

(3)The ÖSYM score type to be considered in student transfer is the one required for placement in the program. Among the ÖSYM scores earned by the student in the year he/she entered university, the score type required by the program to which the student wants to transfer will be considered during evaluation.   

(4) The minimum ÖSYM scores required for applications to the inter-institutional quota are determined by the concerned administrative boards.  

(5) Students who registered in a program through DGS (Vertical Transfer Examination) can apply for a transfer. 

(6) The certification of scores obtained in ÖSYM or equivalent scores must be presented during transfer applications. These scores are used in the academic success ranking of the applicants during the evaluations held by the concerned academic boards. 

 

Summer School

ARTICLE 20 – (1) The courses taken in Summer School and the grades earned by students are not considered in applications for the ensuing Fall semester.   

Documents required for application

ARTICLE 21 – (1) The required documents in the transfer application announcement must be submitted by the deadline for applications so that they might be considered for evaluation.

(2) Any applications with missing documents will be considered ineligible for evaluation.

Application dates and location

ARTICLE 22 – (1) The application dates are announced on the relevant websites by the Higher Education Council and the university within the framework of the related regulation.

(2) Applications must be made with all the required documents, as instructed on the related webpage.

(3) Late applications will not be processed.

(4) Information about applicants who have been considered ineligible for evaluation on grounds of failure to fulfill the requirements or incomplete documents is announced on the related webpage.

(5) The application fee and documents will not be returned to those whose applications were considered ineligible for evaluation on grounds of failure to fulfill the requirements or incomplete documents. 

 

PART 4

Evaluation and Adjustment Procedures

Preliminary Evaluation

ARTICLE 23 – (1) The applications are subject to a preliminary evaluation by the Registrar’s Office within the framework of the announced requirements. The applications of candidates who fail to fulfill the requirements are considered ineligible for evaluation and not transferred to the concerned academic units, and the reasons for rejection are announced on the website.  

 

Evaluation

ARTICLE 24 – (1) Applications of the candidates fulfilling the requirements are evaluated by the chair of the concerned department and the evaluation results are presented to the concerned administrative boards.  

(2) Acceptance and rejection decisions are taken by the concerned administrative boards and presented to the President’s Office for approval.  

(3) During the evaluations, scores are assigned to candidates by considering their university entrance exam scores, Cumulative GPAs, the parallelism between the programs and similar other criteria, and then they are ranked according to these scores.   

(4) Acceptance procedures are carried out according to quotas starting from the most successful candidate on the list. 

(5) The success scores of candidates who are to be accepted within the quota for special cases must be equal to or higher than the scores of those accepted to the concerned program through other types of transfers in the concerned semester. 

(6) If there are vacant quotas, it is at the discretion of the administrative boards concerned, by recommendation of the concerned department chairs, whether or not to make a re-evaluation by considering the success rankings of the applicants.  

(7) With the exception of the intra-institutional special quota, to qualify for all the other types of quotas, the total number of credit courses that the student must take from lower classes must not exceed the regular semester course load of the program being applied to.   

 

Adjustment Procedures

ARTICLE 25 – (1) In intra-METU transfers, the courses students have taken in their previous programs and the grades they have earned are included (with the exception of the extra-curricular courses) in their GPAs and indicated in their transcripts in the new programs.

(2) Course equivalency procedures (i.e. adjustment) are performed for courses taken with different course codes. 

(3) Whether the previously taken courses which are graded as CC or above, S or graded as equivalents to those grades, by students whose transfer applications from outside METU have been accepted may be counted toward their new programs according to up-to-date curriculum by recommendation of the concerned department chair and approval of the concerned administrative board. The regulations pertaining to the inclusion of these course grades in the students’ GPA and cumulative GPA calculations are determined by the Senate.

(4) In the adjustment procedures of students who have transferred through intra-institutional and inter-institutional quotas, the number of courses to be taken from the lower level should not exceed the course load per semester of the program they have been admitted to.

(5) In the adjustment process, applicants who are admitted can be exempted from the half of the curriculum's required credit load at maximum.

Maximum Period of Study

ARTICLE 26 – (1) The period of study spent in the previous institutions/programs by the transfer students are included in the calculations of the maximum period of study. This time period cannot exceed the periods specified by law.  

 

PART 5

Miscellaneous and Final Issues

Announcement of Results

ARTICLE 27 – (1) The list of students whose transfer applications are accepted is announced on the related website. 

Payment of Tuition Fees

ARTICLE 28 – (1) Students who change an institution/department through transfer pay tuitions according to the period of study spent in the previous institution/department.

Northern Cyprus Campus

ARTICLE 29 – (1) The procedures and principles concerning the implementation of this directive in the undergraduate programs conducted in METU Northern Cyprus Campus are determined by the Senate.

Validity
ARTICLE 30 – (1) This directive takes effect on 2019-2020 Academic Year, the date it was approved by the University Senate.

Implementation
ARTICLE 31 – (1) This directive is implemented by the President.

 

 

Explanation: With the 24 May 2016 decision of the University Senate,

1- Clause 4 of Article 7, Clause 3 of Article 9, Clauses 2 and 3 of Article 10, and Clause 1 / Item ‘e’ of Article 18 of this Directive was amended.

2- Clause 2 of Article 8 and Clause 3 of Article 11 of this Directive were added.

With the 9 May 2017 decision of the University Senate,

1- Clause 2 of Article 5 of this directive was amended.

2- Clause 1 / Item ‘c’ of Article 18 and Clause 4 of Article 25 of this Directive were added.

With the Senate decision date of July 30, 2019

1- Items "a", "b", and "c" were added to Clause 3 of Article 5 in the Directive.

2- Item "b" of Clause 3 of Article 7 in the Directive was removed.

3- Clause 5 of Article 19 in the Directive was removed.

With the Senate decision date February 22, 2022: 

1- Items "a", "b", and "c"  of Clause 3 of Article 5 in the Directive were amended.

2- Items "f", and "g"  were added to Article 16 in the Directive.