She earned a B.A. in English Language Teaching from Anadolu University, and a Diploma for Overseas Teachers of English, RSA, Cambridge University, UK. Her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are in Curriculum and Instruction from Middle East Technical University. Akar attended an integrated doctoral program with a TUBA scholarship as a visiting research scholar at Stanford University, Graduate School of Education in the years 2002-2003. She became the assistant to Chair and Erasmus Coordinator between the years 2004 and 2008. And has been teaching various courses at graduate and undergraduate level since then, to name few are compulsory courses such as Research Methods in Education and Program Evaluation, and developed and taught elective graduate courses such as Teaching in Higher Education, and Education and Social Policy.