We are a group of researchers at the City and Regional Planning Department preparing a project on sustainable and equitable campus foodscapes under Topic 1: The way towards sustainable and resilient food systems.

In the context of the project, campuses will be studied to understand their engagement in reflexive practices in their food practices and their agency in building sustainable, healthy and equitable food systems. Our intention is to lay important analytic groundwork through surveys and mapping in order to identify actors, roles of different actors in decision making processes, establish the current situation on campuses, identify strengths and weaknesses, and as a result propose a conceptual model that lead the campus to a more sustainable food provision system. Participatory and action-based approaches will be applied in addition to spatial analysis and evaluation.

Middle East Technical University is founded under the name of "Orta Doğu Yüksek Teknoloji Enstitüsü" (Middle East High Technology Institute) on November 15, 1956 to contribute to the development of Türkiye and Middle East countries and especially to train people so as to create a skilled workforce in the fields of natural and social sciences.

METU as a pioneer of high quality university education in Türkiye, introduced new methods and innovations in research to Turkish higher education system. In 1963, the University moved to its current campus location which is the first university campus of Türkiye.

There are 107 graduate and 69 doctorate programs available in Graduate Schools of Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Informatics, Applied Mathematics and Marine Sciences Graduate Schools. Marine Sciences conducts the academic program studies at İçel-Erdemli.

The language of instruction at METU is English. METU School of Foreign Languages takes the initiative to teach English to students at Preparatory School.

As a distinguished research university, METU has been commited to excellence in science and top-quality higher education since its foundation. Today, the University is proud to employ about 791 faculty (professors, associates professors etc.), 225 academic instructors and 1.273 research assistants. It is a great pleasure to offer education to over 28.000 students. The total number of the alumni now is above 120.000.

Established in 1961, the Department of City and Regional Planning is one of the oldest and largest schools of planning in Turkey. With more than 2,000 alumni and not less than 400 undergraduate and graduate students today, the Department of City and Regional Planning has played a key role not only in planning education but also in the development of urban research in Turkey.