History, Affiliations and Rankings
The university was founded in 1933. Istanbul University is among the leading and oldest Turkish universities whose establishment dates back to the conquest of the city by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453 and since then it has gone through many iterations. Later, in 1933 the university cognate after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk amended Turkey’s education system. Since then, Istanbul University has always been a chief in science, contemporary values and enlightenment of the society. It is located in an area of historical and architectural connotation on Istanbul’s peninsula and was formerly a landmark headquarters of the Ministry of War by the Ottoman government. The university was the first and only university in the Republic of Turkey. The mission of Istanbul University is to grow valuable knowledge for our country and humanity and to train competent students by bringing together the east and the west, the past and the future. The university is affiliated with Coimbra Group, EUA and UNIMED. It is ranked #712 in the Best Global Universities, #164 in Best Global Universities in Asia and #11 in Best Global Universities in Turkey.
Infrastructure, Campuses and Courses
Istanbul University has been the iron horse of Turkey’s Higher Education providing 15 faculties, 12 institutes, 2 schools, 2 departments, 2 vocational schools, 74 research and application centres and 216 student clubs. Istanbul University has 675 diploma programmes, 124 bachelor’s degrees, 329 master’s degrees, 20 associate degrees and 202 PhD degrees.
The university has a great library collection consisting of approximately 1.5 million books. Istanbul University is spread across 12 campuses in Beyazit Central, Laleli Vezneciler, Vefa, Horhor, Avcilar, Capa, Cerrahpasa, Sisli, Kad?koy, Bahcekoy, Bakirkoy and Buyukcekmece. The main campus of the university is Beyazit Central. The courses or faculties the university deals with are the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Literature, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Management, Faculty of Political Sciences, Communication Faculty, Faculty of Aquatic Sciences, Faculty of Theology, Faculty of Open and Distance Education, Faculty of Transport and Logistics, Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Nursing and Faculty of Computer and Information Technologies.
Accomplishments and Alumni
Istanbul University is the only university in Turkey whose alumni have been granted 2 Nobel Prizes. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was bestowed to Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar in 2015 and The Nobel Prize in Literature was received by Orhan Pamuk in 2006. Istanbul University is 86th in the world, 14th in Asia, and 1st in Turkey by aggregated alumni eminence. Some of the alumni of the university are Berat Albayrak (Turkish businessman and politician), Halet Cambel (Turkish archaeologist and Olympic fencer), and Canan Kaftancioglu (Turkish physician and politician), Ekrem Imamoglu (Turkish politician serving as the 32nd and current Mayor of Istanbul since 2019).
Student Diversity and Visiting Companies
The total number of students in the university is 84,991, out of which the number of international students is 6,730. The total number of academic staff is 2,376 of which 113 is the international staff. The number of undergraduate degrees offered is 7,127, 2,423 master's degrees and 592 doctoral degrees. The total research only staff is 1,311. 10,903 new undergraduate students, 2,957 master's students and 995 doctoral students are admitted.
