Academic Schedule and Leave of Absence

Dear METUans,

In line with the latest announcement of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) on 26 March 2020, the 2019–2020 Spring Term will be conducted via distance education. Courses containing applied elements that cannot be taught remotely will be held in the summer months.

To replace the time lost during the decision making for and transitioning to distance teaching, we are intending to postpone the last day of classes to 05 June 2020 depending on Instructors’ needs. Under this rearrangement, the final exams will be rescheduled to take place one month later than the announced dates. Furthermore, to prevent any overload in the system due to distance education, the final exam period will be extended by a week and rescheduled between 06–26 June 2020, to minimize the issues that can emerge during the exam period.

For the course content that cannot be completed via distance education, we are planning to offer an intensive academic calendar to be applied after the end of this unpredictable pandemic, and to complete the teaching and grading of those courses within the proposed “Intensive Summer Academic Calendar for the Spring Term”. We cannot forecast the start date, period or intensity of the calendar mentioned above, as we do not know the course the Coronavirus pandemic will take. For the same reason, we cannot yet clarify whether we will be offering the summer school term this year. Furthermore, if we do manage to provide it, we cannot know under what circumstances it will be conducted, as every decision depends on the course of the pandemic.

Final exams of the courses that’s being delivered remotely can also be held via digital facilities during the Regular Term Updated Academic Calendar (until June 26, 2020) if the faculty members approve. For those courses that the use of digital facilities to hold final exams is not appropriate, we are planning to set aside a few days at the beginning of the “Intensive Summer Academic Calendar for the Spring Term” to hold exams. The Final exams for the “Intensive Summer Academic Calendar for the Spring Term”, which is expected to extend into the summer months, are planned to be held at the end of the academic calendar.

METU distance teaching support web site https://its.metu.edu.tr/uzaktanegitim/en/student/ is updated continuously, and the creation of introductory and training videos about distance education is still in progress. Please visit this page.

Following the latest YÖK decision, students who lack the infrastructure to access distant education resources have the right to apply for a leave of absence. To apply for a leave of absence, students need to fill in the Student Petition Form on Intranet stating their grounds for the application and send the completed form to Registrar’s Office - nccregmetu.edu.tr.

We want to sincerely thank you all for your efforts and cooperation to keep our teaching activities intact during this challenging period.

Warmest wishes,
President’s Office