Member
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Bengü received her bachelor’s degree in Measurement and Evaluation in Education from Hacettepe University. She then continued her graduate studies in the United States, completing a dual master’s and doctoral program in Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Following her doctoral studies, she worked as an advisor at the International Office of the University of Kentucky.
After returning to Türkiye, she first joined Istanbul Okan University’s Faculty of Education, where she focused on teacher education and curriculum innovation. She later joined Abdullah Gül University (AGU), where she played a leading role in shaping the university’s educational innovation agenda. At AGU, she founded the Center for Learning and Teaching (CeLT), contributed to the redesign of undergraduate courses through active learning methods and technology-enhanced teaching, and led an interdisciplinary team in coordinating the Global Challenges and Responsibilities Curriculum, which integrates the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into higher education.
During her recent sabbatical in Japan, Dr. Bengü conducted research at the University of Tokyo on applying the Quintuple Helix Model to higher education in support of the SDGs. She collaborated with several universities, including Kanazawa University, Kyoto University, and the United Nations University (UNU). As a result of these collaborations, she was invited to join the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) Action Group on the Futures of Higher Education and Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Bengü’s current research focuses on connecting higher education with the SDGs through transdisciplinary and community-based approaches. She explores how universities can collaborate with society to build healthier and more sustainable communities — aligning with the “Communiversity” concept articulated by Prof. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, which envisions universities as integral parts of their communities.