UNIVERSITY

Boğaziçi University is an academic institution with a 150-year-old legacy of disseminating and cultivating independent thought and science in the country. With Faculties for Arts and Sciences, Economics and Administrative Sciences, Education, and Engineering and a number of Institutes and Schools, the University caters to approximately 10.000 undergraduate students and 3.000 graduate students.

In addition to being a cutting-edge public institution for advanced research and higher education, Boğaziçi University is also a vibrant intellectual center for public discourse, literature, cinema, and music. Among such activities we can mention the public lectures organized by various initiatives (by departments, inter-departmental consortiums or student clubs) on the campus (e.g., Hrant Dink Memorial Lecture, Aptullah Kuran Memorial Lecture, Stephan Yerasimos Memorial Lecture, Museum Lectures, Sociology Lectures), the Mithat Alam Film Center and a film monthly with national circulation (Altyazı), the growing back catalogue of the Boğaziçi University Press, the weekly classical music concerts at Albert Long Hall and, last but not least, the consistently high-quality activities and productions of student clubs.   The main campus of the University is located in a unique spot, over a woody hill, next to the historic Rumelihisarı Fortress, looking over the beautiful Bosphorus.

History

Robert College, the first American College outside of the United States, was founded in 1863 by Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, a missionary and educator, and Mr. Christopher Rheinlander Robert, a wealthy merchant and philanthropist from New York. The college moved to the present campus in 1871, after the completion of the first building, appropriately named Hamlin Hall. As for the endowment, it was created through the sale of Robert’s estate after his death in 1878. The College was, from the start, a liberal arts institution with a special emphasis on the teaching of languages and natural sciences. A language preparatory school was set up soon after the College moved to its present location. Through the first half-century of its existence Robert College grew as more buildings, stil named after their generous donors, became part of the campus. The second building erected on the College site was a Science Hall (later renamed Albert Long Hall), which was soon followed by professors' houses, dormitory and classroom buildings, an engineering building, a gymnasium, laboratories, a library and an infirmary. Many of the buildings on campus were constructed from the blueish limestone quarried on campus, the same quarry that had been used more than four centuries ago for the building of the nearby Rumelihisarı Fortress. The Engineering School, a symbol of the expansion and modernization of the College, was established in 1912. The School of Business Administration and the School of Sciences and Languages were founded in 1959 and an English Language division was established to prepare high school graduates to any of these three schools. The 1950s also saw the branching of the College into an Academy (Robert Academy) providing secondary/high school education, separate from the College proper, with its three schools and various programs of higher education. In January 1971 the Board of Trustees passed a resolution to the effect that the Turkish Government should be encouraged to establish an independent university as a successor to Robert College. Robert Academy left the campus. Boğaziçi University was established by a Parliamentary Act on September 12th of the same year, on what had been the Robert College campus for over a century.