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Born in 1978 in Yalova, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Bahçekapılı graduated from Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Theology in 2001 as the first in his term. In 2001, he participated in the "Islamic Countries Youth Meeting" organised by the State of Saudi Arabia as a representative of our country. Bahçekapılı, who received language education in England in 2001-2002, completed his master's degree in 2005 and his doctorate in 2010. In 2014, Bahçekapılı was appointed as Associate Professor and in 2019 as Professor. During his tenure in the academic field, he held many academic and administrative positions such as "Dean, Vice Dean, Advisor to the Rector, Head of Department, Member of the University Education Commission, Member of Scientific Research Projects, Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Social Sciences.
Bahçekapılı has worked as an executive and researcher in 2 different EU projects in the field of religious education in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden, as well as in many publicly funded projects and BAP projects. Bahçekapılı, who received awards from state institutions for his work, was awarded the "Science Award" in the field of Education at the World Disability Congress in 2018. He chaired many congresses, symposiums and workshops. Since 2016, Bahçekapılı, who has been publishing the journal Turkish Religious Education Research, has books, articles and papers in different subject areas of religious education such as religious culture and ethics courses and teaching programmes, elective religion courses, religious education models and approaches, values education, Islamic religious education and models, especially religious education policies in Turkey and Europe.
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Bahçekapılı was appointed as the Rector of Yalova University with the decision dated 07 April 2022 and numbered 2022/132, which was published in the Official Gazette dated 08 April 2022 and entered into force with the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.