In 2025, METU took education beyond its campuses – to schools, municipal venues and public spaces in Türkiye and Northern Cyprus – through regular programmes and one-off activities.

Regularly programmed

İLKYAR school projects: İLKYAR, a foundation set up in 1998 by METU academics, and the METU İLKYAR student society take METU volunteers – students and academics – to village and boarding schools across Türkiye several times a year. During each project, volunteers spend several days at the schools, running science experiments, reading and creative activities with the pupils and giving books and educational materials. Since it began, İLKYAR has reached more than 600,000 pupils in 3,500 schools and given away about one million books. Its projects in 2025:

• İLKYAR (METU volunteer society that has supported children in Anatolia for 40 years): in September 2025, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Vural and METU students ran an 'Awareness in Education and Life' programme at Ardahan Science High School over two evenings, with science experiments for boarding pupils and talks by METU students about their fields and university life.

https://ilkyar.org.tr/event/ardahan-projesi-2025/

• METU İKLİM Sustainable Development Talks podcast series: in 2025, METU's Climate Change and Sustainable Development Application and Research Centre (METU İKLİM) produced a public podcast series to take METU's knowledge on sustainability beyond the campus to the wider public. Its 12 episodes were released between 30 January and 29 May 2025 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, where anyone can listen to them. Each episode focuses on one UN Sustainable Development Goal: a METU academic explains the topic in plain language, presents METU's related research and projects, and discusses practical steps that individuals, institutions, and decision-makers can take. Topics range from renewable energy, sustainable cities, and climate-resilient buildings to water management, food security, gender equality, and quality education. The episodes:

https://haber.metu.edu.tr/tr/2025/01/odtu-iklimden-surdurulebilir-kalkinma-hedefleri-podcast-serisi/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK6kHfHfuSzYollGY3DxZBrg8uQz9mn1Y

• Science Café: a series of talks that METU Northern Cyprus Campus organizes with the KTMMOB Chamber of Civil Engineers to bring science to the public outside the university, in cafés in town. Its second meeting, 'Consumption, Brands, and People', was held on Saturday, 27 December 2025, at 14:00 at a café in Kyrenia and was open to the whole public. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çağrı Yalkın discussed consumer culture and how brands shape people's behavior, and the METU Rector, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil, opened the event by describing METU's mission as a third-generation university of sharing knowledge and research with society. The organizers announced that the series will continue with new topics.

One-off training (ad-hoc)

• December 2025, Keçiören (Ankara): at the Keçiören Municipality seminar 'Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management', held at the Neşet Ertaş Art and Performance Centre for residents, neighbourhood heads (muhtars), NGOs and search-and-rescue volunteers, Prof. Dr. İsmail Yücel (METU Civil Engineering) presented climate projections for Ankara, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meltem Şenol Balaban (METU Disaster Management Research Centre) spoke on climate-resilient cities and communities.

https://basinda.metu.edu.tr/2025-12-12/5250865

• May 2025, Elazığ: Prof. Dr. Soner Yıldırım (METU Computer Education and Instructional Technology) gave the public seminar 'The Nature of Learning', organised with Elazığ Municipality at the Ahmet Tevfik Ozan Fair and Congress Centre, for teachers, school administrators and parents.

https://basinda.metu.edu.tr/2025-05-19/4824577

• November 2025, Nicosia: Murat Ata from METU Northern Cyprus Campus trained foreign-language teachers on 'Using AI Images as Language Feedback', at an event of the Turkish Cypriot French Cultural Association.

https://basinda.metu.edu.tr/2025-12-01/5227665

• February 2025, Mersin: Dr. Evrim Kalkan Tezcan from the METU Institute of Marine Sciences spoke at the public panel 'The Last Stronghold of Seagrass Meadows: Aydıncık', organised by the Mersin Chamber of Shipping and the Mersin City Council at the Chamber's conference hall. She explained how warming of the Mediterranean, faster than the global average, threatens Posidonia oceanica meadows. Representatives of the Coast Guard, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality, Mersin University, the Chamber of Environmental Engineers and civil society attended.

https://basinda.metu.edu.tr/2025-02-13/4624626

• May 2025, Aydıncık (Mersin): Dr. Evrim Kalkan Tezcan took part in a public panel on seagrass meadows in the coastal town of Aydıncık, explaining to residents how rising sea temperatures affect marine life.

https://basinda.metu.edu.tr/2025-05-20/4826028