The sod-cutting ceremony for our Schools of Medicine and Health Sciences, and our R&D Building, took place Thursday, October 15, 2020. As a reflection of our quest to improve, this new investment consolidated the hopes of better days to come, in the dire times at hand where our country, and the entire world, are facing many challenges.

The building under construction on a site of 27,448.19 m2 is intended to hold a 295-person conference hall, 100 offices, 36 laboratories established on 3,578 m2 of land, and a parking lot of 140 vehicles upon completion. Also involved in the plan are a cafeteria of 780 m2, 10 lecture halls of 1,785 m2 for 1214 people each, as well as study areas, and a reading room.

In his speech for the sod-cutting ceremony, our University President Prof. Dr. Yıldırım Üçtuğ has stated: “Our School of Medicine will be one of our most important schools, in fact, one of our “dynamos”. Atılım University has never been an institution to focus solely on coursework. In fact, research is one of the key elements among our mission statements. Upon its completion, we expect our new building to be a hub for pioneering research in the field of health sciences. The building is not intended to be a hospital, it is, in fact, in the place of learning for our Schools of Medicine and Health Sciences.”

Mentioning the goals of our University for the year 2023, our President added that a new need has emerged as a result of the investments in the field of medicine that have been underway since 2017, stating: “These developments brought new requirements. Among them is a requirement for a new building for the School of Medicine, and the School of Health Sciences. These two Schools of ours have been active at a temporary building, for the last 2 or 3 years. Thus, a new building is underway. We are aiming for a massive one, too. We prospect the construction to take 2 to 3 years to complete. And that takes us to the year 2023. As a more realistic target, we have set the inauguration of our School of Medicine and Health Sciences building as our target for 2023. We estimate the building to have a capacity of around a thousand students.”

Ramazan Şimşek, the Mayor of Gölbaşı, also participated in the sod-cutting ceremony. Mr. Şimşek thanked Atılım University for our contributions to the area, and added: “We were ecstatic when the initial investments began in 1996. And, there has been more to come. We are delighted that they make such massive investments in the face of today’s challenges. Gölbaşı is a place for students. Here, we have 25 thousand college students. The Atılım Family is an investment family to contribute to our county, to Gölbaşı, and to our country. What we prioritize is to help train quality students for future generations, and Atılım University does just that.”