Our History

Kemal GÖZÜKARA Education and Culture Foundation, which is the FOUNDER foundation of İstanbul Arel University, was established on 14.09.1999 with the aim of raising people who synthesize national values and universal values in the globalizing world, respond to the expectations of the society, are sensitive to republican values, democratic and liberal and who research, produce and create. In line with this purpose, with the initiatives of the foundation, İstanbul Arel University was established with the 2809/5656 – App. Law No. 76 dated 09.05.2007, as published in the Official Gazette dated 18 May 2007 and numbered 26526.

Our university, which started education in the Küçükçekmece-Sefaköy Campus in the first place, has grown rapidly. With the completion of Büyükçekmece-Tepekent Campus in 2010, undergraduate education units moved to Tepekent Campus, and vocational schools and institutes continued their education in Sefaköy Campus. Our Sefaköy Campus, which has a closed area of 18,560 m2, is at a central point on the E5 Highway in Küçükçekmece. There are 80 smart classrooms, 6 lecture halls, project halls, Radio and Television Studio, laboratories, workshops, library, conference hall, cafeteria in our campus where vocational schools and institutes are located.

Thanks to the location of the university campuses, İstanbul Arel University is a city and campus university. Cevizlibağ Campus, which was established in the 2019-2020 Academic year, is one of our campuses. In our Cevizlibağ Campus, we have the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, which continue their activities in cooperation with Bahçelievler Memorial Hospital. The campus, which has an indoor and outdoor area of 15,000 m2, includes basic medical laboratories of 2000 m2, nutrition and dietetics laboratories, physiotherapy laboratories, enzyme laboratories, and many more state-of-the-art health-related laboratories operating at the undergraduate level.

The name of “Tepekent Campus”, located in Tepekent, has been changed to “Kemal Gözükara Campus” with the Senate decision taken in 2018. In Kemal Gözükara Campus, which covers 52,400 m2 of indoor area and is located in Tepekent, to the west of Büyükçekmece Lake, there are;

• The education building, which has the capacity to provide education to 7,500 students with 300 smart classrooms and lecture halls of different capacities,
• ARELTECH, Technology and Engineering Center,
• ARELPOTKAM, Polymer Technologies and Composite Application and Research Center,
• ARELUZEM, Distance Education Application and Research Center,
• ARELUSAM, International Strategic Studies Application and Research Center,
• ARELMED-I, Artificial Intelligence Studies Application and Research Center,
• ARELTTO, Technology Transfer Office,
• ARELMEDYA, Contact Center,
• ARTIAREL, Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center,
• ARELKAM, Career Planning Application and Research Center,
• ARELDİLMER, Language Application and Research Center,
• GENÇAREL, Youth Activities Center,
• ARELPAM, Psychology Application and Research Center,
• ARELPDR, Psychological Counseling and Guidance Application and Research Center,
• ARELSEM, Continuing Education  Center,
• ARELFINLAB, Finance Laboratory,
• AREL Community Studies Application and Research Center,
• ARELAYO, Academic Writing Office,
• ARELPRO, University-Business Education Cooperation Office and many more research centers,
• Interpreting and translation technology laboratories,
• Molecular biology, genetics and chemistry laboratories,
• Editing, materials and mechanics laboratories,
• Optician laboratory as well as seventeen laboratories,
• Library, conference hall, cafeterias, sports complexes with a semi-olympic swimming pool and various sports areas, and student houses close to nature.