Study in Istanbul: universities, costs and careers for international students

Photo: Arild Vågen · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Why Istanbul

Before the detail, the snapshot - what you actually get by studying here.

• Around 60 universities in one city - more than any other city in Europe or the Middle East, covering every entry level and budget from cheap state places to full-fee private campuses
• Boğaziçi University and Istanbul Technical University are Türkiye’s two best-known institutions, and both teach in English
• The country’s economic centre: the Istanbul Finance Center, the head offices of Turkish Airlines, Turkcell, Arçelik, Koç and Sabancı, and Türkiye’s entire start-up scene
• Direct Turkish Airlines flights to more than 60 African destinations, so going home for the holidays is a single flight rather than a two-leg trip through Europe

Universities & popular courses

The gap between the top state universities and the rest is wide here, and so is the gap in fees - check the language of instruction on the programme page, not the university homepage.

• Boğaziçi University: entirely English-taught, the hardest place in Türkiye to get into, and the strongest for economics, computer engineering, electrical engineering and management
• Istanbul Technical University (ITU): founded in 1773, the country’s engineering benchmark - civil, mechanical, aeronautical, naval architecture and computer engineering, with many programmes fully in English
• Koç University and Sabancı University: private, entirely English-taught, small cohorts, large scholarship budgets and the best graduate-employment records in the country
• Istanbul University, Marmara and Yıldız Technical: large state universities with medicine, dentistry, law and pharmacy, mostly taught in Turkish
• Bahçeşehir, Bilgi and Özyeğin: private universities with big international intakes, English-taught business, computing and engineering, and more accessible entry requirements
• Curriculum: bachelor’s degrees run four years (medicine six, dentistry and pharmacy five), master’s one to two years. Most universities add a one-year language preparatory year - hazırlık - if you cannot yet prove English or Turkish proficiency

Career prospects & ROI

Istanbul is the only city in Türkiye where a large share of graduates find work without leaving town - but the work permit, not the degree, is the bottleneck.

• Industry connections: Turkish Airlines, Trendyol, Getir, Peak Games, Insider, Ford Otosan, Arçelik, Garanti BBVA and the Turkish arms of Unilever, P&G, Microsoft and Siemens all run internship and graduate programmes here
• Work while you study: bachelor’s students may apply for a part-time work permit after completing their first year; master’s and PhD students can apply from the start. The permit is tied to a specific employer, so line up the job before the paperwork
• After you graduate: Türkiye has no automatic post-study work visa. You can apply for a short-term residence permit of up to a year to look for work, and once you have an offer the employer applies for your work permit at the Ministry of Labour - confirm the current rules before you rely on them
• Türkiye is a full Erasmus+ country, so an exchange semester at an EU university is open to you from an Istanbul campus and costs you nothing extra in tuition
• Graduate salaries are modest in euro terms, so the return here comes from low study costs plus a CV with a multinational on it - not from a high starting wage