Bilkent University ( tr, Bilkent Üniversitesi) is a private university located in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, Turkey. It was founded by Prof. İhsan Doğramacı in 1984, with the aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research. It is constantly ranked among the top Turkish universities since its establishment. In 2011, it was listed as the top 112th university in the world by The World University Rankings. Bilkent University was modeled after

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and was the first non-profit private university established in the country. The name Bilkent is an abbreviation of ''bilim kenti'': Turkish for "city of science".

History

Preparations for the establishment of the university began in 1967, with the purchase of a tract of land to the west of Ankara. In the late 1970s the foundations of the buildings which now house administrative offices, the faculty of engineering, and the library, were laid. Construction of residences for academic staff, cafeterias, student dormitories, and various academic buildings followed rapidly.

Campus

The university occupies three campuses. They are located about 12 km west of the center of

, and cover a total area of more than 300 hectares.

Library

The university library houses a large collection of books with annual acquisitions valued at over 3 million U.S. dollars. As of 2017, Bilkent University Library is the largest university library of Turkey, and it is the only university library to rank in the top 10 libraries in the country. A FMPA student - Bilkent Library - 4

In addition to books, the collection includes periodical subscriptions,

microform Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. ...

s, CD-ROM, access to numerous online databases and electronic journals, DVD, VHS and audio cassettes. Sheet music and sound recordings are available in the music rooms. The library also hosts a number of private collections and an exhibition hall.

Academics

The university offers 33 undergraduate majors, together with 32 graduate programs spanning 22 different fields.

Faculties

* Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture * Faculty of Business Administration * Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences * Faculty of Education * Faculty of Engineering * Faculty of Humanities and Letters * Faculty of Law * Faculty of Music and Performing Arts * Faculty of Science

Schools

* School of Applied Languages * School of Applied Technology and Management * Vocational School of Computer Technology and Office Management * Vocational School of Tourism and Hotel Services

Rankings

The

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli ...

consistently ranks Bilkent University as one of the top universities in Turkey. Bilkent, as a university with less than 50 years of history, is also ranked as one of the most prestigious younger universities in the world: ''THE'' powered by Thomson Reuters ranked Bilkent in the category BRICS & Emerging Economies as follows: Bilkent University is particularly noted for the quality of its Faculty of Engineering. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings rank Bilkent among the top 100 universities for Engineering and Technology, which makes it the only university in Turkey to make it to the top 100 in a subject list, as follows: The Faculty of Business Administration of Bilkent University was the first business school in Turkey to be accredited by AACSB; less than 5% of the business schools around the world have received this accreditation. The business school has been ranked by Eduniversal among the best business schools of the

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

region for international influence. According to the

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...

of 2012 and 2013 the university ranks in the 151–200 range in the subject of "Economics & Econometrics".

Student life

Sports

Students can participate in many sports courses and be trained by university staff, mostly for free. The university presents many individuals and teams in different sports in varsity competitions. The most well-known sport teams of the university are the Bilkent Goats and the Bilkent Judges, the

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *''The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilatio ...

team and the football team, respectively.

Student unions and clubs

The board and the departmental members of the Bilkent Student Union are chosen annually among all registered university students. The Student Union is the main sponsor and the organizer of Mayfest, the traditional Bilkent University summer festival. Various student clubs organize regular activities every day on and off the campus, mostly open to everyone. All students are allowed to join, or participate in the events and activities of any club they wish to. Student union and club activities are coordinated under the supervision of Student Events Center of Bilkent.

Recreation

Bilkent University is host to numerous events regarding music and the performing arts. The university also sponsors frequent lectures, art exhibitions, and literary evenings throughout the academic year. During the first week of may, each year Mayfest is held. Mayfest is a well-known festival among the youth of Ankara, consisting of a large number of activities, as well as open-air concerts where renowned Turkish pop and rock bands and singers take the stage every night throughout the week.

Noted people

Faculty

István Aranyosi István Aranyosi (born 1975) is a Hungarian philosopher and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bilkent University. He is best known for his works on philosophy of mind and metaphysics. Books *''The Peripheral Mind: Philosophy of Mind and the P ...

- Faculty of Humanities and Letters *

Gürer Aykal Gürer Aykal (born May 22, 1942) is a Turkish conductor and adjunct professor at Bilkent University. He has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999. Education Aykal was born in ...

- Faculty of Music, conductor *

Suna Kan Suna may refer to: People * Suuna I of Buganda, king of Buganda until 1609 *Suna II of Buganda, king of Buganda from 1836 until 1856 * Suna Kan (born 1936), Turkish violinist of classical music *Suna Kıraç (1941–2020), member of the Turkish Ko ...

- Faculty of Music, violinist *

Gülsin Onay Gülsin Onay (born 12 September 1954) is a leading Turkish concert pianist of German descent, based in Cambridge, England. Education Born into a musical family, Gülsin Onay began to play the piano at the age of three. Her first teacher was her ...

- Faculty of Music, pianist *

Fazıl Say Fazıl Say (; born 14 January 1970 in Ankara) is a Turkish pianist and composer. Life and career Fazıl Say was born in 1970. His father, Ahmet Say was an author and musicologist. His mother, Gürgün Say was a pharmacist. His grandfather Fa ...

- Faculty of Music, pianist * Jason Hale - Faculty of Music and Performing Arts-Theatre Department Chair, actor/director * Talat Sait Halman ''(deceased in 2014)''- Dean of the School of Humanities and Letters, first Minister of Culture of Turkey * Stanford J. Shaw ''(deceased in 2006)'' - Faculty of History *

Halil İnalcık Halil İnalcık (7 September 1916 – 25 July 2016) was a Turkish historian. His highly influential research centered on social and economic approaches to the Ottoman Empire. His academic career started at Ankara University, where he completed h ...

- Faculty of History *

Norman Stone Norman Stone (8 March 1941 – 19 June 2019) was a British historian and author. He was Professor of European History in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, having formerly been a professor at the University of Oxf ...

- Faculty of International Relations, and History *

Hikmet Sami Türk Hikmet Sami Türk (born 1935 in Of, Trabzon) is a Turkish academic and politician. He was at the faculty of law of Ankara University from 1967 until 1995. Elected to parliament from 1995 to 2002 for the Democratic Left Party, he was Minister ...

- Faculty of Law, former Minister of Justice of Turkey *

İlber Ortaylı İlber Ortaylı (born 21 May 1947) is a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the MEF University, Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed as the director ...

- Faculty of Law * Sami Selçuk - Faculty of Law, former Head Judge of the Supreme Court of Turkey *

Hilmi Volkan Demir Hilmi Volkan Demir is a Turkish scientist, best known for his works on white light generation. Biography Hilmi Volkan Demir was born on July 4, 1976 in Kars, Turkey. He received his B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Bil ...

- Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, and Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Director of UNAM *

Abdullah Atalar Abdullah Atalar (born April 11, 1954) is a Turkish scientist and academic. Atalar was the Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an a ...

- Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering *

Orhan Aytür Orhan Aytür (born 1965) is a Turkish professor of optoelectronics and world champion amateur underwater photographer. Academic career Aytür was born in Ankara. He completed his secondary education at Tarsus American College and TED Ankara Col ...

- Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering * Erdal Arikan - Founder of Polar Codes, Faculty of Engineering, Department in Electrical and Electronics Engineering * Mustafa Akgül ''(deceased in 2017)'' - School of Applied Technology and Management, Department of Computer Technology and Information Systems * Refet Gürkaynak - Dean of Faculty of Economics, Administrative, and Social Sciences * Tolga Mete Duman - Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Alumni

Başak Köklükaya Başak Köklükaya (born 19 April 1974) is a Turkish actress. She has appeared in more than 20 films and television shows since 1989. She starred in '' The Confession'', which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2002 Cannes Film ...

- actress *

Binnur Kaya Binnur Kaya (born 19 April 1972) is a Turkish actress. Biography Kaya graduated in theatre from Bilkent University in 1995. She went to Istanbul where she worked at the Ankara Sahnesi and Karatahta Child Theatres and then at the Bakırköy Munici ...

- actress *

Demir Demirkan Demir Demirkan () (born 12 August 1972) is a Turkish musician, Eurovision Song Contest winning composer, formerly guitarist for thrash metal band Mezarkabul. Demir Demirkan started playing music when he was 13 and played guitar with various gr ...

- Rock musician *

Emrah Yucel Emrah Yucel (born May 24, 1968), is a Turkish advertising and graphic designer based in Los Angeles, USA. He specialized in motion picture advertising as well as country and city branding. Yucel was born as the son of a screenwriter mother and ...

- Graphic designer and president of the Turkish Film Festival * Erdem Başçı - Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey * Esra Bilgiç Töre - Actress
Mete Atatüre
- Turkish physicist *

Gizem Girişmen Gizem Girişmen (born November 25, 1981) is a Turkish Paralympic archerhttp://www.hurriyet.com.tr/spor/digersporlar/9888672.asp?m=1 competing in the women's recurve ARW2 event. Early years In 1992, at the age of eleven, she was paralyzed follo ...

- Disabled female archer. Won gold medal at the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was f ...

in the category of individual recurve W1/W2 *

Gizem Memiç Gizem Memiç (; (born May 16, 1990, in Ankara) is a Turkish model and beauty pageant title holder who won the title of Miss Turkey 2010 on Thursday 1 April 2010. Gizem Memiç accepted the crown from Ebru Şam, Miss Turkey 2010. She graduated fr ...

- Former Miss Turkey titleholder who represented Turkey both in

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stre ...

and Miss World beauty pageants in 2010. *

Hakan Fidan Hakan Fidan (born 1968) is a retired Turkish army sergeant major, educator, diplomat and the Head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization. Career After a first degree in management and political sciences at University of Maryland Univers ...

- soldier, teacher, diplomat and the Head of National Intelligence Organization (Turkey) *

Haluk Akakçe Haluk Akakçe (born 1970 in Turkey) is a contemporary artist living and working in New York and Istanbul whose work explores the intersections between society and technology through video animations, wall paintings and sound installations. He tra ...

- Painter and audiovisual artist *

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (; born 5 February 1968) is a Turkish diplomat and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey since 24 November 2015. He previously served in the same position from August 2014 to August 2015. He is ...

- diplomat and politician; current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey * Hande Dalkılıç - Pianist *

Ibrahim Sirkeci İbrahim Sirkeci (born 1972, Izmir, Turkey) is a British Turkish social scientist, Professor at various British universities. He previously worked at the European Business School London, Regent's University London, and was the Director of Re ...

- Professor of Transnational Studies and Marketing at

Regent's University London Regent's University London (formerly Regent's College) is a private university located in London, England. It is part of Galileo Global Education, Europe’s largest higher education provider. Regent's University London was established in 1984 ...

* Kaan Tangöze - Rock musician as known from Duman *

Murat Han Murat Han (born 1 May 1975) is a Turkish-American stage and film actor. He is best known for ''Bliss'', ''Vicdan'', ''Ömre bedel'', ''Sensiz Olmaz'' and ''Thophy''. Biography Murat Han is an Ankara-born film and television actor. He atten ...

- Actor *

Nasuh Mahruki Ali Nasuh Mahruki (born 21 May 1968) is a professional mountain climber, writer, photographer and documentary film producer. An all-round outdoor sportsman, he climbed to the summit of Mount Everest and was the first ever Turkish person to climb ...

- Mountaineer, first Turk to climb Mt. Everest and the founder of search and rescue team, AKUT * Nevşin Mengü - News reporter *

Orkut Büyükkökten Orkut Büyükkökten (born February 6, 1975) is a Turkish software engineer who developed the social networking services Club Nexus, inCircle and Orkut. Orkut Büyükkökten is a former product manager at Google. Career Originally from Konya, Tu ...

- employee of Google who developed the social networking service called

Orkut Orkut was a social networking service owned and operated by Google. The service was designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships. The website was named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkök ...

* Şahan Gökbakar - Comedian *

Tamer Karadağlı Tamer Karadağlı (born 24 May 1967) is a Turkish actor. Biography Tamer Karadağlı's family was of Azerbaijanis origin and moved to America a short time after he was born. They returned to Turkey just as he began primary school there. He stud ...

- Actor *

Tarkan Gözübüyük Tarkan Gözübüyük (born 15 July 1970) is the bass player of the Turkish heavy metal band Mezarkabul (known as Pentagram in Turkey). Biography Born in 1970 in Erzurum, he grew up in Bursa. His first encounter with the bass guitar was aged fou ...

- Musician as known from

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle arou ...

, Producer * Vuslat Doğan Sabancı - Chairwoman of ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'' *

Yasemin Mori Yasemin Aygün Savgı (born 4 March 1982), better known as Yasemin Mori, is a Turkish alternative rock singer. Biography As daughter of military architect father and Edirne-born mother worked as a sales chief on Turkish Airlines, her original ...

- Musician * Yiğit Bulut - Journalist and a senior advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Affiliations

Centers

* National Research Center for Magnetic Resonance (UMRAM) *Bilkent University Center for European Union Affairs *Ahmed Adnan Saygun Center for Music Research and Education *Bilkent Center for Advanced Studies (BICAS) *Center for Mind, Language & Culture *Center for Brain Research *Center for Environmental Sciences *Center for International Economics *Center for Russian Studies *Center for Studies in Society and Politics *Center for Turkish Language and Speech Processing *Center for Turkish Politics and History *Center for Research in Transitional Societies (CRTS) *Center for Turkish Literature *Communications and

Spectrum Management Spectrum management is the process of regulating the use of radio frequencies to promote efficient use and gain a net social benefit.Martin Cave, Chris Doyle, William Webb, ''Modern Spectrum Management'', Cambridge University Press, 2007 The term ...

Research Center (ISYAM) *Genetics and Biotechnology Research and Development Center (BILGEN) *Halil Inalcik Center of Ottoman Studies *Nanotechnology Research Center (NANOTAM) *National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM) *Bilkent University Computational Electromagnetics Research Center (BiLCEM)

Cyberpark

Bilkent Cyberpark, founded in 2002, is the fastest growing techno park in Turkey serving with 240 technology-based companies, one micro nano chip factory, five research centers, and 4,00 personnel.

Institutes

*Institute of Economic and Social Sciences *Institute of Engineering and Science *Institute of Fine Arts *Institute of Music and Performing Arts *Institute of World Systems, Economies and Strategic Research *Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology

References

External links

* *
Bilkent Cyberpark
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