Nurper ÜLKÜER, Ph.D

Dr. Nurper Ulkuer, is currently a Professor of Child Development at Uskudar University, Istanbul. Teaching Developmental Psychology, Child Rights and Protection, Educational Approaches, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Between Dec.2015 and June 2016, Dr. Ulkuer as a senior consultant (education) in a comprehensive external evaluation on UNHCR’s work on Syrian Refugees in Turkey.

Dr. Ulkuer, is also heading the Association of Child Development and Educationists (ACDE). Under her leadership, the ACDE has recently organized a Symposium and a Workshop on “Migration, children and peaceful social cohesion” exploring ways in which social cohesion can be build at home, in the neighborhood and in school among all children of both refugees and host communities. UNICEF supported the event, UNHCR, Turkish Red Crescent, NGOs, and local governance did also participate in the symposium and the workshop, which laid forward looking training programs and research designs to be implemented as soon as possible.

Dr. Ulkuer, is a former UNICEF staff member, starting her career as a national Education Program officer in Turkey with wide range managing responsibilities in education, women, communication, research and evaluation programs for over 10 years. Then, in 2000 she moved to UNICEF Central Asia and Kazakhstan Area Office in Almaty, as an Area Child Development Advisor, where she worked closely with ministries of education, health and social welfare in five countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), again carrying out educational, research and evaluation programs for around 4 years.  Her last duty station was UNICEF NYHQ, where she was the Chief of Early Childhood Unit, and Global Senior Advisor. During her 8 years in NY, Dr. Ulkuer, supervised several monitoring and evaluation projects, participatory action research as well as external evaluations in collaboration with UNICEF’s Evaluation Department.

Before joining UNICEF, between 2004-2009, she worked progressively as an Associate Professor, and the Chair of Child Development and Education Department at Gazi University, Faculty of Vocational Education in Ankara Turkey. 

Dr. Ulkuer, is a graduate of Hacettepe University, Turkey with High License (MSc.) In Child Development, later with a government scholarship, she studied at London University, Institute of Education (UK), completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Education, MA in Comparative Education, and Ph.D. in Education.