Istanbul Atlas University

Istanbul Atlas University is a private, foundation-owned university in Kağıthane on the European side of Istanbul; it was founded in 2018 and admitted its first students in 2020. The YÖK Atlas 2026 guide lists 33 bachelor's programmes, 18 of them taught in English, including medicine and dentistry in both languages. Its 2026/27 fees are published: English-taught medicine costs $25,000, Turkish-taught $20,000, dentistry $23,560 and $18,530, and other bachelor's programmes $4,500–6,300 before the 10% and 15% reductions.

The university lists six faculties (Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering and Natural Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Health Sciences, and Arts, Design and Architecture) plus a vocational school and a graduate institute. Atlas reports a campus of about 110,000 m² with more than 10,000 students, and the medical and dental faculties run their own hospitals.

The main case for Atlas is English-taught medicine and dentistry with clinical training in the university's own hospitals and a published 2026/27 price list. The second is a tight set of English-taught technical degrees: artificial intelligence and data engineering, computer and software engineering, data science, biomedical, industrial and electrical-electronics engineering, and molecular biology and genetics. YÖK Atlas places every faculty in one district, Kağıthane, which makes housing easier to plan than at universities with scattered campuses.

The limits follow from the university's age and set-up. Its first students arrived in 2020, so there is no long graduate track record yet. It has no residences of its own, only arrangements with private dormitories. MÜDEK accredits only the Turkish-taught computer engineering programme, and YÖK Atlas 2026 shows no YÖKAK institutional accreditation mark for Atlas. A deposit paid before registration is not refunded if you withdraw.

For English-taught programmes Atlas accepts TOEFL iBT 75, PTE Academic 55, Cambridge CAE at grade B, CPE at grade C, or 70 out of 100 on its own Atlas Proficiency Exam, held online and in person. IELTS is not on the list. Students from countries where English is the official language and the language of their school are exempted from the preparatory year and the exam after a check by the Department of Foreign Languages.

Under the standard YÖK Atlas 2026 condition for English-taught programmes, the preparatory year is compulsory without a proven level, is not counted in the degree, and a student who has not completed it within two years is dismissed. For medicine that means six years plus a possible prep year, for dentistry five plus one.

Even on the English-taught medical and dental programmes, patients in Istanbul clinics speak Turkish, so start learning Turkish in the first year rather than just before the clinical years.

In the university's 2026–2027 fee list each programme has three figures: the tuition fee, a "Scholarship Fee (10%)" column that is 10% lower, and an "Advance Payment (15%)" column a further 15% lower for paying in advance. English-taught medicine, for example, reads $25,000, $22,500 and $19,125. The list does not say who qualifies for the 10% reduction or whether an amount is charged per year or per programme, so rely on your admission letter.

• Medicine: $25,000 in English and $20,000 in Turkish ($19,125 and $15,300 with both reductions).
• Dentistry: $23,560 and $18,530 ($18,025 and $14,175 with both reductions).
• Health sciences $4,500–5,900; engineering and natural sciences $5,550–6,300; humanities and social sciences $4,660–5,510; arts and design $4,660–5,000.
• Vocational school: $2,900 for every programme ($2,220 with both reductions).
• Master's $4,500–20,000, with the thesis master's in clinical psychology the most expensive; doctorates in psychology, computer engineering and surgical nursing $16,500.

Once your pre-application is approved you pay a deposit: $5,000 for medicine and dentistry, $1,000 for other bachelor's, vocational, master's and doctoral programmes. If you do not register on time or fail to meet the registration conditions, the deposit is not refunded, as the university treats it as a transaction fee. You can pay by bank transfer to the university's Akbank account shown on the admissions page or by card on the official payment page, tahsilat.atlas.edu.tr.

Applying is free and online only. You need scans of your school-leaving certificate, transcripts for all upper-secondary years and your passport; add an exam result (SAT, ACT, IB, AYÖS, Abitur, Konkur, TQDK and similar) if you have one. Atlas's international pages do not publish a minimum school grade for medicine.

1. If you meet the criteria, a conditional acceptance letter arrives within two days; another university page allows up to five working days for document evaluation.
2. You pay the deposit and upload the receipt to the same system.
3. The final acceptance letter, which you use for the visa, follows within two days according to the how-to-apply page, or within 3–5 working days of uploading the receipt according to the admission-requirements page.
4. Before the academic year starts you register in person at the International Office and pay the balance.

Registration needs originals and copies of your certificate and transcripts with notarised Turkish or English translations, the equivalency certificate from the Turkish Ministry of National Education (from a Turkish consulate, the Istanbul education directorate or the e-denklik system), your passport, a visa, residence card or entry stamp, the acceptance letter and two biometric photos.

Türkiye's foreign ministry lists visa-free entry of up to 60 days for tourist and business travel on ordinary Russian passports, and Atlas tells students from visa-exempt countries they can enter on their passport; a student then needs a residence permit. Atlas asks you to apply through e-ikamet within one month of arrival, with health insurance for at least a year, a Turkish tax number, a student certificate and biometric photos. The migration authority decides on the permit.

YÖK Atlas 2026 places all bachelor's faculties in Kağıthane on the European side. Medical and dental students train at the Faculty of Medicine hospital and the university's dental hospital.

Atlas has no residences of its own. It works with private dormitories chosen for transport links, but states that it has no legal or financial relationship with them and takes no responsibility for them; a residence near the campus is only being planned. You agree the contract, price and house rules directly with the dormitory, so compare deposits, utility charges and the commute to both campus and hospital.

The International Office runs an orientation for international students, explains how to apply for a residence permit, obtain a tax number, open a bank account and arrange health insurance, and refers students struggling to settle in to the university's counselling service.

MÜDEK's 2026 accreditation list includes one Atlas programme, Bilgisayar Mühendisliği, the Turkish-taught computer engineering degree, with accreditation and the EUR-ACE label from 1 May 2026 to 30 September 2028. English-taught computer engineering is not listed, and medicine and dentistry fall outside MÜDEK, which assesses engineering only.

For doctors and dentists the diploma is only the first step: the right to practise comes from the authority in the country where you plan to work and usually involves recognition of the degree and an exam. Learn its rules before you choose the language of your programme. Midwifery (Ebelik) admits women only, under its YÖK Atlas 2026 condition.

Atlas is a weak match if you need a university residence, a long record of medical graduates, design or interior architecture taught in English (these programmes are Turkish-only), or an IELTS route without the in-house exam. English-taught medicine costs $19,125–25,000 in tuition alone on the 2026/27 list, before housing and insurance.

• Paying the deposit before checking the registration conditions: it is not refunded if you withdraw.
• Treating both reductions as automatic: your admission letter fixes the discounted amount.
• Relying on older price lists or third-party sites instead of the 2026–2027 document.
• Arriving for registration without the equivalency certificate, which Atlas lists as required.
• Assuming English-taught computer engineering carries MÜDEK accreditation like the Turkish one.
• Applying to Midwifery as a male student: the programme admits women only.

Programmes and teaching language follow the YÖK Atlas 2026 guide, with the Turkish title in brackets. Amounts come from Atlas's 2026–2027 fee list in US dollars; the list does not label the billing period. Medicine lasts six years, dentistry five and other programmes four, not counting a preparatory year.

The Atlas vocational school has 21 two-year programmes in YÖK Atlas 2026, all in Turkish: anaesthesia, surgical services, dialysis, medical imaging, medical laboratory techniques, oral and dental health, dental prosthetics, opticianry, physiotherapy, first and emergency aid, telehealth, elderly care, medical promotion and marketing, environmental health and risk management, computer programming, information security, e-commerce and marketing, graphic design, interior design, logistics, and green and ecological building. Each costs $2,900 on the 2026–2027 list, $2,610 with the 10% reduction and $2,220 with advance payment.

Master's programmes on the same list (list fee; the 10% and 15% amounts are printed alongside). Thesis programmes at $7,415: in English, computer engineering, information technologies, electrical-electronics engineering, industrial engineering, and molecular biology and genetics; in Turkish, computer engineering, neuroscience, nutrition and dietetics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, midwifery, anatomy, histology and embryology, medical biochemistry, medical biology and genetics, medical microbiology, medical pharmacology, physiology, and three nursing programmes (internal diseases, surgical diseases, obstetrics and gynaecology). Non-thesis neuroscience, nutrition, midwifery, cognitive rehabilitation, and technology and innovation management cost $5,295. English-taught artificial intelligence and smart systems, biomedical engineering and thesis business administration are $5,550; non-thesis business and management information systems $4,500; Turkish-taught business $5,000 with a thesis and $4,500 without; digital game design and sports nutrition $4,500. The most expensive are clinical psychology ($20,000 with a thesis, $18,000 without), speech and language therapy ($15,000) and psychology ($8,500). Doctorates in psychology, English-taught computer engineering and surgical diseases nursing cost $16,500.

• Istanbul Atlas University: 2026–2027 fee list — tuition, 10% and 15% advance-payment amounts, deposits.
• Istanbul Atlas University: admission requirements for undergraduate programs — documents, deposit and refund rule, registration, language scores, payment, housing.
• Istanbul Atlas University: how to apply — timing of the conditional and final acceptance letters.
• Istanbul Atlas University: international student support — orientation, residence permit, tax number, insurance.
• Istanbul Atlas University: about Atlas — founding year, faculties, campus, hospitals.

Also checked: the YÖK Atlas 2026 guide (programmes, language, duration, preparatory-year and midwifery conditions), MÜDEK's 2026 accreditation list and the visa page of Türkiye's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Facts checked on 7 October 2026.