September 1, 2015
The American University of Central Asia is pleased to announce the launch of its graduate program in Applied Psychology. On August 25th, 2015, the entire faculty gathered together to welcome the new batch of MA students into the program and wish them well in their personal growth and professional success.
The program unites three core fields of psychology: Counseling, Organizational Psychology and Research. Each student receives a solid theoretical background in each field, along with critical research skills and practical professional competence.
The establishment of this program represents the next logical step in the development of the Psychology Department. A thoughtfully constructed course of study in conjunction with an internship system and a mandatory two-year long research project ensures the quality of the program. “Our students will be the only graduate students in the country with full access to the largest academic databases in psychology such as PsycArticles,” the Chair of the Psychology Department, Elena Kim says.
The Psychology Department’s faculty, together with international experts, has designed this program to provide its students with skills in high demand locally and internationally. In addition, every year two international professors will be teaching courses via online modules. The professors will visit the campus at least once a year for intensive modules. “Short-term practice based seminars, workshops, and master-classes will also be inherent for MAPAP,” Elena Kim remarked. The program already incorporates opportunities for the students to attend our partner universities abroad as well as the option of participating in student exchanges in Europe and the USA.
The first cohort of ten highly qualified and motivated students has already been selected to begin their studies in the upcoming academic year. “We have 7 students who graduated from AUCA in various years and two international students and a graduate from a partner university,” Elena Kim says. Most of the students are working professionals who want to advance their knowledge and increase their skillset; they want to move forward in their academic and professional careers - to develop a better understanding of themselves. “All of these are good reasons to be in our program,” the Chair of the Psychology Department concluded.