The first students of the Halkalı School of Agriculture were civil veterinary students. Of the first 25 students admitted in 1889, who studied at the Civil School of Medicine in Ahırkapı, 19 were transferred in 1891 to the school in Halkalı, whose construction had not yet been completed. The school was officially opened on Thursday, 13 October 1892 by Celal Bey, General Director of Ziraat Bank. In 1914, when World War I began, classes at the Halkalı School of Agriculture were suspended, as in other schools. Most of the teachers and students rushed to the front, becoming veterans or attaining martyrdom. In 1916, during the war, the school was reopened due to the need for agricultural production, seed inspection and distribution.
During the term of the last Rector, Faik Bey, the school was closed in 1928 pursuant to the Law on the Reform of Education. In 1930, it reopened under the name Halkalı Agricultural School as a 3-year secondary-level vocational school. In 1980, the duration of education was extended to 4 years. With the approval of the Ministry of National Education, it was deemed appropriate for the school to provide landscape-focused education starting from the 2001-2002 academic year, and the school was renamed the Agricultural Production Enterprise and Landscape Vocational High School.
With the Council of Ministers Decision dated 04.07.2005 and numbered 2005/9139, the school was closed and the Halkalı Agricultural Production Enterprise Agricultural Extension and In-Service Training Center Directorate was established in its place.
The land, which hosted many educational institutions during the process of Ottoman modernization and belongs to the Sultan Bayezid II Veli Foundation, was allocated to the İlim Yayma Foundation for the establishment of a university. Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University was founded in 2010 by the İlim Yayma Foundation as a foundation university subject to the provisions of Higher Education Law No. 2547 on foundation higher education institutions. Today, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University serves in this place where Mehmed Âkif both studied and taught.
The Department of Nursing of the Faculty of Health Sciences was established in the 2012-2013 academic year by the Official Gazette dated 21.03.2012 and numbered 28240. Having graduated its first students in 2017, the department has so far produced a total of 7 graduating classes.