Pointing to the importance of education in fields such as international relations, history, philosophy, and sociology being conducted under the umbrella of psychology with a multidisciplinary approach, Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that they aim for more robust and versatile education in these areas. Prof. Dr. Arıboğan noted that they updated their curricula by examining the educational programs at the world's leading universities. "What we are trying to do is create a curriculum that meets world standards," said Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, adding, "Within this framework, we have made a great revolution in the faculty by jointly reviewing both the number of courses, their quality, and their content. We renewed and changed all of them and adapted them to the system of the new world."
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that university education should be geared towards meeting needs in a manner appropriate to the spirit of the times. Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, noting that he believes educational approaches that are constantly forced into systems, molds, and templates are very wrong, said, "It is possible for a person to be successful or unsuccessful in certain areas, but if you put them into the system, they love their profession, love their field, and you can achieve tremendous success."
Psychology education is also offered in the History department
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that the departments within Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences interact with different fields in a multidisciplinary way, saying, "We have added psychology to our curriculum in the History department. Thus, we aim to teach history through the psychology of societies in that period. We analyze the psychology of leaders. History transforms into a completely different narrative. The world is often presented as if it's only a history of wars, yet while wars happen, there's a multitude of lives behind them. People get married, write songs, write poems, someone invents something called French fries. Isn't that something extraordinary? This is the history of humanity. If you just sit and read this as only the history of wars, young people don't like it, questions arise from there, and then we say, 'This child is unsuccessful.' It doesn't work out."
We organized the curriculum to world standards
Noting that Üsküdar Üniversitesi is very meticulous in terms of its educational curricula, Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that they follow global developments and organize their curricula in light of these developments. Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan said the following:
"I am a dean with great sensitivity on this matter. I have been here for three years. After completing my duties at Oxford University, I came to Üsküdar Üniversitesi. I am a senior member of the Centre for Political Psychology at Oxford University. What I am trying to do is to create a curriculum that meets world standards. Within this framework, we have made a great revolution in the faculty by jointly reviewing both the number of courses, their quality, and their contents. We renewed, changed, and adapted all of them to the system of the new world. We prepared a curriculum without being confined to templates. While doing this, we looked at what universities like Oxford and Harvard, which stand out with their strong points especially in the field of social sciences, do, in addition to Turkey's well-known universities."
We positioned our faculty around psychology
Reminding that Üsküdar Üniversitesi is our country's first thematic university in the field of behavioral sciences and health, Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that they established the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences' umbrella on psychology.
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan said, "We focused our faculty around our university's niche brand. What is the characteristic of our university? We are good in behavioral sciences and health, but primarily, we are a very ambitious university in the field of psychology and psychiatry. Due to our Founding Rector Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan being a psychiatrist, and the existence of our practice partner NPİSTANBUL Brain Hospital, we have a broad and diverse global staff in this field. Turkey's best psychiatrists and psychologists work here. When such a situation exists, we established our faculty's umbrella on psychology. We started to revolve all departments around its periphery."
We created a curriculum with a strong focus on political psychology
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that within the scope of this structuring, they prepared a curriculum heavily focused on political psychology in political science and international relations, saying, "We have created many detailed course curricula such as political psychology readings, political psychology and cinema. We also have a center for political psychology. Besides that, fields like sociology, philosophy, and history now offer education integrated with the science of psychology. They also use different concepts like psychohistory or the psychology of history. We also have a psychology-focused curriculum there."
Turkey's neuroscientists are giving lectures
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan also noted that Prof. Dr. Sultan Tarlacı and Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan, leading figures in Turkey working in the field of neurology and brain, give lectures in these departments, saying, "We are a brain base. We operate through the human brain. Prof. Dr. Sultan Tarlacı gives neuro lessons. Our esteemed Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan gives the neuropolitics course. In the past, we used to understand political behaviors by conducting surveys. Now, survey studies are no longer meaningful because people can also lie in surveys. Now we can see the response of people's brain movements on the monitor. Someone says, 'I loved it very much,' but we see that they hate it. Red lights up there, green lights up. These methods bring a completely different understanding of a new political science. We are working on these."
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan noted that the academics in the philosophy and sociology departments are instructors who participate in global studies, saying, "We have instructors with very high student satisfaction, high caliber, and international backgrounds. We have also made very good transfers to our sociology department. We are constantly conducting research. Our latest instructors to join our staff also came from the world's best universities. Our staff was already strong, now we are even stronger. We have now started developing special projects with some high schools. We are conducting research on loneliness, research on youth loneliness. We have research on the elderly, meaning we are now in the field."
Translation and Interpreting department also opened
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that they opened the Translation and Interpreting department for the first time this year and that there is intense interest in this department, adding, "Regarding this department, we developed the following approach: This is a Translation and Interpreting department, but it is located within a social sciences faculty. You cannot learn a language merely as a linguistic system. You must also look at it within its cultural framework. If you understand it with its songs, poems, and literature, you truly imbue that language with its real meaning."
We are a university that lives closely with its students
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan noted that as a university, there is a strong and sincere bond between academics and students, saying, "We are a university that lives very closely with our students. We were a bit sad that we were deprived of that the most during the pandemic period, but hopefully, we will open our system. We can say that we are the most eager institution to transition to face-to-face education. We want our students on campus."
Being in the center of Üsküdar provides significant advantages
Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan stated that Üsküdar Üniversitesi campuses are located in the most central parts of Istanbul, adding that this situation provides significant advantages to students. Prof. Dr. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan said, "Everywhere in the world, city universities and campus universities differ from each other. Some students, by their nature, cannot perform adequately if they are not open to the outside world. They want to focus on their lessons in a more sterile, more secluded environment, and prefer their friends to be in a narrower circle. They stay in a dormitory; this is a lifestyle. A campus lifestyle forms. However, some students want to touch life as soon as they step out the door, in the middle of the city. This interaction with life has the advantage that you might encounter a conference by someone you know, there might be a concert, you see life, you take the subway, you take the bus, you have cafes, you have restaurants, your friend groups become very diverse. You don't just stay within the environment of your own faculty or campus. As Üsküdar, we are in the center of history."