Middle East Technical University (METU) is a state university founded in 1956, and is one of Turkey's most competitive universities. Its mission is to reach, produce, apply and promote knowledge, and to educate individuals with that knowledge for the social, cultural, economic, scientific and technological development of our society and humanity. This is to be done by bringing teaching, research and social services up to universal standards. It has currently about 23,000 students of which 4,100 are in masters and 2,400 are in doctorate programs.