Top Universities in Istanbul: Private Options Compared - LATEST 2026

The private universities listed for Istanbul differ most in size and age. Istanbul Aydin University is the largest, with 50,000 students, followed by Istanbul Medipol University with 46,488 and Istanbul Gelisim University with 39,052. At the small end are Sabancı University, with 5,168 students, and Istanbul Gedik University, with 6,254.

Sabancı is also the oldest, founded in 1994. Haliç University and Bahçeşehir University both opened in 1998. The newest are Biruni University, founded in 2014, and Istinye University, founded in 2015. In between sit mid-sized universities such as Uskudar University, with 24,000 students, Istanbul Topkapi University with 20,000, and Istanbul Yeni Yuzyil University with 18,347.

Every university here has a dormitory, and StudyLeo takes applications for all of them. Fees, teaching languages and entry requirements are set program by program, so open a university's page to see what its programs cost and which language they use before you decide.