3.3.3. Shared sports facilities
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METU shares its sports facilities with the local community on a regular basis. Some are free to use; others are open to people from outside METU as registered guest users at a guest tariff.
|
Facility or programme |
Who can use it |
Charge |
Use in 2025 |
|
Lake Eymir (METU-owned lake and surrounding land): walking, running and cycling routes |
Everyone |
Free of charge |
Open every day |
|
Sports facilities on the Ankara campus: 3 indoor sports halls, 2 fitness halls, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, artificial-turf pitches, a climbing wall, padel, pickle ball and squash courts |
Students and staff, and – after registering in the online reservation system – alumni, staff relatives and guests from outside METU |
Guests pay a guest tariff set each year by the University Executive Board |
236,154 reservations by 33,479 active users, including 1,025 guest users from outside METU and 1,874 alumni |
|
Sports courses run by the METU Sports Directorate (yoga, Pilates, Sport for Health, aikido, boxing, capoeira and others) |
Students, staff, alumni and guests |
Paid |
3,046 participants, including 35 guests |
|
Indoor swimming pool for sports federations |
Sports federations |
Paid |
17 competition days of national water polo leagues and championships (at least 59 matches) in February, March, July and October 2025 |
Regular community use
The METU Indoor Olympic Swimming Pool runs a fixed weekly usage programme: Tuesday to Sunday, nine sessions a day between 09:00 and 23:00 (Mondays are kept for cleaning and maintenance). Lanes are allocated every week to the following groups:
- METU Development Foundation Schools (ODTÜ GVO): swimming course for school pupils, every Saturday from 09:00 to 11:45 (1–2 lanes).
- METU Sports Club: swimming, water polo, underwater sports, free diving and underwater hockey teams, six days a week (up to 12 lanes per session at weekends).
- General users: 3 to 12 lanes in every session from 09:00 to 19:15, Tuesday to Sunday (42 sessions a week), for anyone who is not using the pool as part of a METU team, department or student society, including alumni and registered guests from outside METU.
In 2025 the pool also hosted the following national water polo competitions:
|
Dates |
Competition |
Matches |
|
21–23 February 2025 |
U16 Women, Bronze Group, 3rd round |
10 |
|
7–9 March 2025 |
U20 Men, semi-final qualification play-offs |
15 |
|
14–16 March 2025 |
Women's 1st League, Gold Group, 2nd round |
6 |
|
25–30 July 2025 |
U16 Women's Turkish Championship, semi-finals |
22+ |
|
16–18 October 2025 |
U16 Women's Republic Cup |
6 |
In May 2025, METU's Ankara campus received the 'Sports-Friendly Campus' title from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), meeting 44 of 45 criteria covering sports infrastructure, activities, and participation.
https://spormd.metu.edu.tr/sites/spormd.metu.edu.tr/files/odtu_spor_mudurlugu_faaliyetler.pdf