BAU is a private educational institution in Turkey, located around the Bosporus in Istanbul. The Turkish National Assembly authorized the establishment of the University of Bahcesehir by the Bahcesehir Ugur Education Foundation in 1998. An academic and strategic protocol was signed shortly after (February 1998) with San Diego State University in California, USA. The enrollment of the first students was made after the first placement exam (ÖSYS) in the 1999–2000 academic year. The university is one of the few universities in Turkey which has its lectures in English and therefore students applying to BAU are required to have high English proficiency.

The university consists of 8 faculties, 1 school of languages and 2 vocational schools. Four institutes provides post-graduate education. There are 17,048 registered students studying at the university. The number of undergraduate students is 10,137 and the number of graduate students is 4,716. The number of associate degree students is 1072. Some 1047 academicians lecture at the university and 506 administrative personnel work at the university. There are 4 campuses in Istanbul. Bahcesehir University Library, which is established on a 1400-meter-square field renders service with 250,000 publications, books and electronic books. Five different cafe and restaurants render service on the campus. The total audience capacity of the conference hall is 1000.