Prof. Dr. Mehmet Bulut Elected Rector of International Balkan University

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Bulut was unanimously elected rector of International Balkan University (IBU) on 15 October 2026, following a rector election held under Article 97 of North Macedonia's Law on Higher Education. The vote took place across the university's six faculties and one vocational college and was conducted on the basis of a free, direct and secret ballot.

Bulut, known for his academic work in economics and economic history, was born in 1970 in Çanakkale. He graduated from Dokuz Eylül University in 1992 and received a PhD in economic history from Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 2000. He later served as founding dean of the Faculty of Political Science and vice rector at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, was appointed a member of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) in 2012, and was elected to the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA).

Bulut served as rector of Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University from 2013 to 2022 and was a member of the TÜBİTAK board from 2022 to 2025. His main research areas include long-term economic development, Ottoman-European economic relations, economic history and Islamic economics. With his election, academic development, research activities and international cooperation are expected to be a priority on the university's agenda.