Bilkent University is a non-profit private university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by İhsan Doğramacı, the first president of The Council of Higher Education and the head of the prominent Doğramacı family, with the aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research in 1984. It has constantly been ranked among the top Turkish universities since its establishment. In 2011, it was ranked 112th in the world by The World University Rankings. Bilkent University was modeled after Harvard University and was the first non-profit private university established in the country. The name Bilkent is an abbreviation of bilim kenti: Turkish for "city of science".

İhsan Doğramacı was a Turkish paediatrician, entrepreneur, philanthropist, educationalist and college administrator of Iraqi Turkmen descent born in today's Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq then Ottoman Empire.