Working and Living at
METU Northern Cyprus Campus
A. Location and Environment
The METU Northern Cyprus Campus is of a bold and radical design. Sitting atop a sandstone scarp extending westwards from the village of Kalkanlı, there are extensive southerly views across the citrus covered valley towards the Troodos mountains. The ever-changing colours of the Troodos, snow capped in winter, provide a dramatic backdrop to the deep-green orchards of orange, grapefruit and lemon which fan across the plain below the university campus.
Amongst the green orchards, still green even in the height of summer when the wheat fields are scorched yellow, lies the local administrative town of Güzelyurt, five kilometres from campus. Güzelyurt (Morphou) provides almost all the day to day needs of campus residents and is also the local transport hub for Lefkoşa (Nicosia), Lefke and Girne (Kyrenia).
Looking out to the west, the campus finger points out over Güzelyurt Bay, the sandy seashore a mere four miles from campus. Descending through garigue and maquis hillsides of pines, carob, juniper and oak, tracks to the seashore wind through olive grove (some, over five hundred years old), wheat fields, and grazing sheep and goats. Spring fills the area with numerous orchids, wild flowers, sedges and other grasses.
Immediately north of the campus stretching to Cape Korkamitis is the newly-designated Natura 2000 special area of nature protection. To the north and east the hilly garigue and maquis landscape makes up the foreground, through which the road to the north coast and Kyrenia winds, to the jagged limestone and chalk ridge called the “five-finger mountains” Beşparmak Mountains (Pentadaktylos) and which separates the north coast from the central plain.
The campus is located on the edge of the village of Kalkanlı, which in turn is a satellite of the local administrative and commercial town of Güzelyurt. Travel time by car from campus to Güzelyurt is seven minutes, to Girne is forty-five minutes and the journey to Lefkoşa is thirty minutes. Travelling to Ercan airport, from which international connecting flights can be made, takes about an hour. There are regular and frequent flights with different airlines to many destinations in Turkey, from which connections to destinations all over the world can be arranged.
B. Campus Facilities
The bold architecture and careful landscaping make METU NCC a beautiful and tranquil environment within which to work. Tree-lined roads meet areas of lawn, fountains give movement to angular installation, relaxing shade gives way to open plazas. Although built along the flat top of a hill the campus is easy and pleasant to walk, traversed only by few vehicles. Residential areas merge unnoticed with administrative and commercial zones, and student accommodation is located no more than three minutes walk from teaching buildings and the Library.
As a new campus, METU NCC benefits from a number of impressive educational and social facilities. Prime amongst these must be the Cultural and Convention Centre which is a striking glass, marble and steel building which houses four state-of-the-art amphitheatre (each with 550, 220, 110 and 110 seats), eight seminar rooms and an impressive lobby which gives views over Güzelyurt Bay. With a total of 5200 square meters of meeting space, METU NCC Culture and Convention Center is a preeminent setting for any event - seminars, conferences, exhibitions, cinema, theatre, recitals - and which we therefore encourage academic staff to use as an international venue.
Extensive teaching buildings have been built complete with adjacent faculty staff offices. Staff offices are all linked to local area networks, with computing, printing and copying facilities. Lecture theatres and seminar rooms include whiteboard and data-projection and audio-visual facilities an impressive new Engineering Laboratory building now faces the teaching facilities. The School of Foreign Languages has its own dedicated buildings and teaching facilities.
As part of a new campus the Library is housed in a marvellous and spacious building - has great potential to develop into a major venue of learning and scholarship through the efforts of its dedicated team of librarians. Extensive electronic and online collections are available and an active programme of development and expansion of the Library’s teaching and research collections is underway.
Next door to the Library one can find the Computing and IT Building which is not only the electronic nerve centre of the campus, but also houses the IT support team and provides a large number of computing suites for student and teaching use.
Since its inception METU NCC has had a fully operating Guest House with 40 ensuite rooms with two twin beds in each room. The 24-hour reception, modest daily rates and easy access to all campus facilities make the Guest House a fine service for the campus. In addition, new and additional facilities have been built in Kalkanlı, a mere five minutes walk from campus. Thus there are high-quality accommodation facilities on or near campus for visitors whether they be conference guests, parents of registered students, alumni or visiting family and friends.
Here, at METU NCC we work to promote and advance healthy lifestyle choices through participation opportunities, educational experiences and supportive services. Our mission is to provide a broad spectrum of quality sport, recreation, leisure programs and services to diverse METU NCC community; to encourage the lifelong pursuit of active, healthy lifestyles and to enhance personal development through participation, employment, and leadership opportunities. To that end METU NCC has invested heavily in a range of sports facilities centred on the imposing Sports Centre, together with tennis courts, football pitches, and outdoor swimming pools.
A central area of the campus contains a number of retail shops, bank, travel agent, a cafe and a restaurant thereby catering to most immediate day-to-day needs. Buses, taxis and shared taxis (dolmuş) arrive and depart adjacent to the commercial area. Security staff inconspicuously ensure safety on campus twenty four hours a day throughout the year, and also provide security at the main and secondary campus entrances.
C. Accommodation
Full-time members of academic staff will be offered accommodation in fully furnished, well appointed apartments and houses. (Subject to availability for TRNC nationals and residents). Servicing and maintenance of the accommodation, including of the gardens, is carried out by METU NCC contractors.
Three types of accommodation are available ranging from one- and two-bedroom apartments to three-bedroom houses, all with fully fitted kitchens and bathrooms, air-conditioning, full broadband internet access, cable television and telephone points. The houses and one- and two-bedroom flats also benefit from a separate study room. All accommodation types have close and easy access to well-lit car parks. Rental for accommodation ranges currently from 770 TL to 1100 TL per month depending on the type of accommodation.
Utility supplies - electricity, water and telephone - are provided through the university at modest rates, with all university-employed residents receiving itemised statements. A residential maintenance team is available with 24-hour cover. Additional residential cleaning services are also available for individual hire.
D. Health and Social Security Services and Provident Fund
METU NCC has a Medical Centre providing primary health care and first-aid services to students and staff. Medical staff includes two Specialist MD, a General Practitioner and five nurses, all full-time. Our Health Complex also includes preventive health care and psychological counselling services.
Once residence and work permits are issued, academic staff and his/her core family will be entitled to be registered as a local user of social security insurance services. The social security health coverage includes full diagnostic and treatment from state hospitals, both as an outpatient or inpatient, although Tomography and MR Imaging, and 20 % of medicinal costs have to be paid by the out-patients. Medicines are not expensive in TRNC and imaging is about US$50 per session. You might also be asked to pay a nominal amount for a single-bed room upgrade in state hospitals. In order to avoid queues, you may want to visit an external specialist at your own expense, for which about US$50 is charged for the first visit and a somewhat lower amount for its repetition. In this case, 80% of the medicine prescribed by private clinics is also covered by social insurance.
Also there is Provident Fund under which employer and employee contribute 4% each of the employee's earnings. This is a type of retirement fund payable to the employee when he or she ceases to be employed.