ABOUT BİLKENT UNIVERSITY

Bilkent University—the first private, nonprofit university in Turkey—was founded in 1984 by Prof. Dr. İhsan Doğramacı, M.D. The school admitted its first students in October 1986 and began the academic year with 386 undergraduate and graduate students and one main building. Currently, there are over 12,000 students pursuing degrees in a variety of fields.

Bilkent University is located in Ankara, approximately 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) west of the city center, and covers around 500 hectares (1,200 acres). The campus includes three sites: Main Campus (location of the University’s administration and most of its faculties), Middle Campus (location of the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts) and East Campus (location of some of the University’s vocational schools, the School of English Language, and I.D.F primary and high schools). Faculty housing units are found on all three campuses.

Currently, there are more than 150 state and private universities in Turkey. Each year, around 1,800,000 high school graduates take a nationally administered examination to enter these schools. Many of the students who perform best in the University entrance exam choose to attend Bilkent; around a quarter of the University’s students receive various scholarships.

The faculty is comprised of academic staff members from approximately 40 countries. Most hold Ph.D. degrees from universities in North America and Europe. According to the ISI Citation Indexes, Bilkent consistently ranks high in Turkey and also internationally in terms of the number of published papers per faculty member. In the Times Higher Education 2010/11 survey, Bilkent University was named as the best university in Turkey and one of the top 200 universities in the world, ranking 32nd in Europe and 112th worldwide.

To further enrich its teaching and research programs, Bilkent University has entered into collaborative projects and exchange programs with a number of universities abroad. At present, Bilkent has student exchange agreements with over 250 partner institutions around the world, and each year more than 350 international and exchange students from over 40 countries study at Bilkent.

Bilkent also has a communications office in New York City's Empire State Building. Equipped with interactive videoconferencing capabilities, it offers courses in areas such as economics, finance and communication.

Bilkent University is proud to provide an environment for learning and intellectual growth encompassing the sciences, technology and the humanities, and will surely continue to rank among the finest universities in the world.

Non-discrimination statement: Bilkent University hires academic and administrative staff and admits students without regard to gender identity, race, color, age, national or ethnic origin or sexual orientation, to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to staff and students at the University. It does not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, race, color, age, national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other university-administered programs.