A Brief History of TEDU Department of Psychology
TED University (TEDU) Department of Psychology was established in 2015 with the aim of providing a contemporary and qualified education to its students based on the 87-year vision of the Turkish Education Association (TED), the support of other departments of TEDU and the rich knowledge of psychology. In its first establishment, it started to provide education as a department affiliated to the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, and on June 13, 2016, with the establishment of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University, it was transferred under the roof of this Faculty. The founding head of the department is Prof. Dr. Melike Sayıl, who also served as the Chairperson of the TPD Accreditation Supreme Board between 2013-2015. Therefore, the structuring of the department and the program was carried out in accordance with the accreditation criteria of the period and based on the requirements of the Council of Higher Education and the criteria of TEDU Quality Assurance System.
On June 13, 2016, with the establishment of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Prof. Dr. Melike Sayıl was appointed as the dean of the faculty and faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ilgın Gökler Danışman was appointed as the head of the department. Prof. Dr. Melike Sayıl continued to serve as Dean until 2020. Prof. Dr. H. Belgin Ayvaşık, a faculty member of the Department of Psychology, who started to work as TEDU Vice Rector in December 2016, has served as the acting Rector since July 2017, and in June 2018, she was appointed as the Rector in person and served as the Rector until August 2021.
TEDU Department of Psychology admitted its first students in the fall semester of the 2015-2016 academic year and graduated its first undergraduate students in the spring semester of 2019. In 2016, the Department's first graduate program, the Development-Focused Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Master's Program with Thesis, was established and started to admit students. In 2020, the Clinical Psychology Doctorate Program was launched. The Department contributes to the training of many young scientists and practitioners through its regular graduate programs.
Our department expands its academic staff every year and carries out education and research activities with a total of 14 academic staff, including 3 Professors, 2 Associate Professors, 6 Assistant Professors and 3 Research Assistants from the fields of clinical psychology, social psychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience and developmental psychology.
In 2016, the Applied Psychology Unit and Research Laboratory, which includes the Applied Psychology Unit and Real Life Cognition Laboratory, was established. In 2017, the Comparative Cognition Laboratory was established by the neuroscience faculty members working in our Department between 2017-2020. In the following years, some groups or units that actively produce research or services in line with the research interests and fields of study of the faculty members were established. These are Trauma, Loss and Grief Working Group, Political Psychology Laboratory, Resilience and Preparedness in Disasters Laboratory and Social Psychology of Gender Laboratory.
TEDU Psychology Department has hosted important scientific meetings, especially the National Psychology Congress, in the short time since its establishment. Leading scientists from Turkey and abroad took part as invited speakers in the 20th National Psychology Congress, which was organized with the main theme of "Psychology at the Intersection of Sciences" between 15-17 November 2018 in cooperation with TEDU Department of Psychology and TPD. The congress, which took place on TEDU campus and was watched by 1000 participants, has been the most widely attended National Psychology Congress to date. TEDU Department of Psychology organized the 1st Ankara Trauma Symposium in October 2019 and the Ankara Cognitive Psychology Meeting in May 2019, which were also attended by a large audience. In addition, various seminars are organized with the participation of invited faculty members from other universities.
Considering the pandemic conditions in May 2020, TEDU Department of Psychology organized "TEDU COPeS: Coronavirus Psycho-Social Support Team" was established. The team includes a group of more than 100 volunteers consisting of TEDU Psychology Department faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students and graduates.
According to the "Field-Based Competency Analysis of Universities" study published by TÜBİTAK in 2020, which includes a comparative evaluation of the performance of universities on the basis of research areas, TEDU Psychology Department ranks 5th among psychology departments in Turkey according to quality criteria and 11th according to volume criteria. When both volume and quality indicators are evaluated together, it is seen that the department ranks in the first place again. TEDU Department of Psychology, together with its faculty, students and graduates, continues to work to maintain this position it has reached in a short period of 5 years and to carry it further.
TEDU Department of Psychology Undergraduate Program was accredited by the Turkish Psychological Association Accreditation Supreme Board in 2022 with the authority granted by YÖK.