BAU is a private educational institution in Turkey, located in the European side of Istanbul. The Turkish National Assembly established the University of Bahcesehir by the Bahçeşehir Uğur Education Foundation in 1998.

The university is one of the few universities in Turkey which has its lectures in English. The number of students is 25.480. Moreover, according to the YÖK Foundation Higher Education Institutions 2021 report, BAU ranked as first in "Foundation Higher Education Institutions by Number of Foreign Students" with 5,589 foreign students!

BAU consists of a School of Languages, a Vocational School and 9 Faculties: Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Dentistry, Educational Sciences, Law, Communication, Engineering and Natural Sciences, Architecture and Design, Health Sciences and Medicine.