It was established in 1926 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as Gazi Teacher Training Institute. In 1982, it was reorganized by merging with the Bolu Academy of Engineering and Architecture, Ankara Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences, the Ankara College of Technical Careers, the Ankara Girls' College of Technical Careers, and the Ankara State Academy of Engineering and Architecture to become a large metropolitan university as part of the act which created the Board of Higher Education. Prior to 1982 when the Board of Higher Education Law came into effect, institutes of higher education in Turkey were organized under different structures as universities, academies, institutes, and schools. In 1992 faculties and vocational schools in Bolu became Abant Izzet Baysal University.