The Graduation Ceremony of METU Class of 2018-2019 was held on Sunday, June 30, 2019. This year, 2867 students graduated from the undergraduate programs including 288 graduates from Northern Cyprus, and 397 masters and 221 PhD graduates were awarded their diplomas.
The first part of the Graduation Ceremony started at 14.00 following the gathering of the university administration, faculty members and PhD program graduates at the Kemal Kurdaş Hall in METU Culture and Convention Center (CCC). Following the National Anthem and A Moment of Silence, the ceremony continued with a musical recital by Ali Necat Karakuloğlu, a 4th grade student at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Naile Talip Piano Class student at Department of Music and Fine Arts and then with the opening remarks of the President Prof. Dr. Mustafa Verşan Kök. In his speech where he addressed PhD graduates; the President said that the knowledge and skills gained in the education and research environment provided by METU will help them be successful in their future work lives and PhD graduates are expected to play a transformative role in their professional lives and in the society and to be pioneers and leaders in the solution of the problems in our country. Following the speech of the President Prof. Dr. Mustafa Verşan Kök, Dr. Fırat Soner Alıcı, a graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences made a speech on behalf of PhD graduates. After the speech delivered by Prof. Dr. Deniz Zeyrek Bozşahin, Director of the Graduate School of Informatics, on behalf of the Directors of the Graduate Schools, the PhD graduates and the highest ranking students of the undergraduate programs were given their awards.
This year; Stefan Nikoloski from the Department of Mathematics, Akın Koçer from the Department of Business Administration, Alboreno Voci from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Berivan Işık from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Can Livanelioğlu, Canberk Sönmez and Fatih Yazıcı, Khaled Mazen Mahmoud, Elsayed Eldowa and Abdel Rahman RS Yaseen from METU Northern Cyprus Department of Computer Engineering graduated as highest ranking students. Speaking at the ceremony attended by the families of the alumni, the President Prof. Dr. Mustafa Verşan Kök stated he believed they (the alumni) would always defend the principles and revolutions of the Great Leader Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of our Republic, secularism, equality of men and women, fundamental freedoms, the rule of law, and the truths of reason and science in their future lives.
The second part of the ceremony started at 18:30 with the ceremonial march at METU Stadium. A Moment of Silence and the National Anthem were followed by the speeches of the highest ranking students across the university. After the speech made on behalf of the international graduates, the awards were given to the highest ranking students of departments. After allowing the relatives of the graduates into the grass field, the ceremony ended when undergraduate, associate degree graduates received their diplomas.
