The establishment of the Department of Geological Engineering was carried out by Mr. Associate Professor, who was one of the founders of the Mineral Research and Exploration Institute (MTA) and its general manager for many years. It started with Associate Professor Sadrettin Alpan's desire to open a faculty that would train manpower in the fields of mineral exploration and evaluation within MTA. This idea gained momentum when he expressed it to our first and honorary rector, Mr. İhsan Doğramacı, with whom he worked on the METU Board of Trustees, and later it was decided that it would be very beneficial to open an institute that would serve this idea within Hacettepe University. Our founder, Prof. Dr. İsmail Gürol Ataman, started working at the Chemistry Department of our University with the support of our then dean, Prof. Dr. Cemal Şenvar, and then, with a ten-year protocol between MTA and our University, the Institute of Geosciences, and later the Department of Geology and Mining Engineering. Departments are established. In the first years of the establishment of the Institute of Geosciences, the Department of Geological Engineering and the Department of Mining Engineering, there were great contributions and support from the MTA, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), the State Hydraulic Works (DSI) and the French Government. The relations with these institutions and close cooperation efforts are still continuing. As stated above, the Geological Engineering Department was established in 1968 under the Institute of Earth Sciences, which was established within the Faculty of Science and Engineering by the decision of the Hacettepe University Senate dated 30.04.1968 and numbered 222, in order to meet Turkey's manpower needs in geosciences. The Faculty of Science and Social Sciences that was founded in 1967, was divided into the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Social and Administrative Sciences in 1971, after which the Faculty of Science and Engineering was divided into two separate faculties: the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Engineering. The department is affiliated with the Faculty of Engineering under the umbrella of the Institute of Earth Sciences. As a result of a new regulation made in universities in 1973, it was separated from the Institute of Earth Sciences and directly connected to the Faculty of Engineering. However, postgraduate education continued at the Faculty of Postgraduate Education (MESEF) under the umbrella of the Institute of Earth Sciences until the institute ceased its existence in 1981. The Department of Hydrogeological Engineering, which was established in 1977, was closed by the Council of Higher Education in 1983 and was affiliated to the Department of Geological Engineering as a sub-division (Division of Hydrogeology). Educational programs carried out at undergraduate and graduate levels are also carried out as a second program (Hydrogeological Engineering Education and Training Program) within the Department of Geological Engineering. The undergraduate education and training program was started as a 5-year program in 1968, and was extended to 6 years in 1969. The 6-year program continued until 1973, when the department was affiliated to the Faculty of Engineering with the change made in universities. During this time, degrees with the titles "Higher Engineering" and Geological Engineering (Mining) were granted. Starting from 1973, 4-year undergraduate education was started. The word "Mining", which was initially written on the diplomas due to the training provided for mineral exploration and evaluation, and the words "Hydrogeology" in the Geological Engineering (Hydrogeology) diploma, were removed from the diplomas in 1997 due to the changes made in the education program implemented in the following years. Following this date, the certificates acknowledge graduation from the "Geological Engineering Education Program" and the "Hydrogeological Engineering Education Program". The 1/3 foreign language education that started in 1983 was abandoned in 2006, and education continued in Turkish. Our students have attended a compulsory foreign language preparatory class since the beginning of education in 1968 until 2009. Today, the foreign language preparatory classes are optional to our students. Our department, affiliated with the Faculty of Engineering and Graduate School of Science and Engineering, currently offers undergraduate and graduate (masters and doctorate) geology and hydrogeology education programs. As of September 2017, 2901 students graduated from our department's undergraduate program and 495 from our master's and doctorate programs.