Melih Bulu, who has ties to the ruling AKP, was appointed as rector by presidential decree on 2 January 2021. According to faculty, Bulu was the first rector chosen outside the university since the 1980 coup d'état.[1] After the coup, Ergün Toğrol, who was an academician in Istanbul Technical University, had been appointed as the rector of Boğaziçi University.[13]