Room T-370
Bilkent University
06800 ANKARA/
Turkey
- Democracy and community development
- Environment/Sustainable development
- Gender
- Human rights
- International/Cultural relations
- Media
- Others
- Religion
- Research
- Youth and education
Bilkent University is the first private not-for-profit university in Turkey founded in 1984. According to the vision of its founder Ihsan Doğramacı, Bilkent has aspired to become an English-language centre of excellence in higher education and research. Currently, it has more than 12,000 students in nine faculties, two four-year applied schools, three two-year vocational schools, including the School of English Language, and five graduate schools. Among them there are international students from 46 countries. One-fourth of the Bilkent faculty is international, coming from 40 different countries. According to ISI Citations Indexes, Bilkent continuously ranks first among universities in Turkey and ranks high internationally in the same measure. Bilkent University has repeatedly been listed by Times Higher Education and by Quacquarelli Symonds as one of the top 200 universities in the world and the best university in Turkey. Bilkent University has a total R&D expenditure of 15 million Euros per year, and the total number of R&D personnel is 480, which consists of faculty, PhD students and engineers.
Bilkent University was founded to provide an environment for learning and intellectual growth encompassing the sciences, technology, humanities and the arts, to serve human welfare and foster peace on earth. Education at Bilkent is not simply a means to obtain a vocation, a career. Instead, it endeavors to nurture students in the way of thinking and of learning to learn. With its diverse educational programs, scientific and scholarly research endeavors, and artistic and cultural activities, Bilkent University aims to help students/individuals develop themselves as critical, analytical and independent thinkers and life-long learners, so that they may become the competent, creative, broad-minded, ethical and socially responsible leaders of tomorrow, who will contribute to the advancement of humanity.
There are research centres in fields ranging from nanotechnology, space technologies, computational electromagnetics, communications and spectrum and spectrum management to music research and education, environmental sciences, international economics and Turkish politics, history and language. In addition, there is a Centre for EU Affairs, which guides faculty members in terms of participating in the EU Framework Programmes and related actions. Hundreds of Bilkent students have participated in the Erasmus programme, while Bilkent University has hosted equal number of European students. Bilkent has more than 165 Erasmus Partner Universities in Europe. There is also a European Documentation Centre. In view of all these, Bilkent University is uniquely poised to promote the scopes of ALF within Turkey, help maximise its impact on Turkish university youth and society.
Bilkent University can help contribute to the Network through various academic and policy-oriented activities, such as conferences, workshops, research and organization of public events.
Joining the ALF Network provides valuable opportunities of cooperation with other like-minded institutions in the European Union and the Mediterranean and help promote Turkey's relations with the European Union and the Mediterranean region.