METU sets completion targets for students from low-income households and has designed its scholarship rules so that these students can stay enrolled and graduate.

Target

METU's Academic Freedom, Integrity, Inclusiveness and Equality Policy commits the university "to monitor the acceptance, success and completion rates of those students from the lower quartile income groups, people with disability, and other disadvantaged groups and continue financial and other support (such as mentorship and advisership) for their education."

Scholarship rules designed for completion

The METU Scholarship and Support Directive links continued support to academic progress, but sets thresholds aimed at keeping low-income students enrolled rather than excluding them:

Longer support where needed (Article 4.b): support can continue beyond the normal length of the programme, so students who need more time can still complete their degree.

Realistic academic thresholds (Article 4.c): first-year students keep their support with a cumulative GPA above 0.50, recognising that students from disadvantaged backgrounds may need time to adjust; from the second year a cumulative GPA of 2.00 is required.

A route back (Article 4.ç): students whose support has been stopped can re-apply under defined conditions, so a suspension is a pause rather than a permanent exclusion.

Low-income students graduating: METU Alumni Association scholarship holders

The METU Alumni Association's need-based scholarship, which supported 486 METU undergraduates in 2024–25 and 503 in 2025–26, also follows its scholarship holders through to graduation. In June 2025, 50 of its scholarship holders graduated, 16 with honours and 10 with high honours; a further 15 graduated in February 2026.

Monitoring completion

METU's Institutional Development and Planning Office records undergraduate enrolment and graduation every year in the VARSİS institutional data system, providing the baseline against which the completion of scholarship holders is compared.

Source: METU VARSİS institutional data system. Graduates are students who completed their degree in the fall, spring or summer term of that academic year.

2025 figures

How these figures were calculated: scholarship holders – 6,575 students were receiving cash scholarships in 2025, of whom 719 were new awards, so 5,856 of the 7,186 students supported in 2024 were still supported in 2025 (METU Directorate of Student Affairs, activity reports 2024 and 2025). This is a minimum: students who graduated in 2025 leave the scheme and are not counted, although each year about one in seven METU undergraduates’ graduates. All undergraduates – 17,303 undergraduates were enrolled in 2025–26; after subtracting about 3,479 new entrants (2,830 through YKS, 27 through DGS, 247 international students and about 375 transfers), about 13,824 students continued from 2024–25, and 2,646 graduated in 2024–25 (METU VARSİS).