The education of the Industrial Design profession is one of the most important dynamics of our association. In the 1940s, industrial design education was started in America by Bauhaus teachers who migrated after World War II. Industrial design education in Turkey, a relatively young discipline, has begun for the first time at the undergraduate level in Istanbul in the early 1970s.

Following the establishment of the first product design undergraduate program titled Industrial Design in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul, design education undergraduate programs are given the title Industrial Design or Industrial Product Design in Turkey. Although the programs under two different names are structurally identical, the difference stems from the Turkish translation of the titles given abroad Industrial Design and Industrial Product Design. Today, the term Industrial Design is accepted all over the world.

In Turkey, the first industrial design instruction was governed in 1971 at Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, later changed to Mimar Sinan University, under a separate Interior Architecture and Industrial Design division. In 1979, the Department of Industrial Design undergraduate program was founded at Middle East Technical University at the Faculty of Architecture. Following this, the departments established at Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts in 1985 and Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture in 1993 have started to accept undergraduate level students.

Approaching half a century, after the first 25 years of Industrial Design education in Turkey has been executed at four undergraduate level programs all at state universities, in 1996 a new department was established at Yeditepe University at the Faculty of Fine Arts, for the first time under the roof of a private university. In 2000, the first department located outside Ankara and Istanbul opened at Eskişehir Anadolu University. Within the 45 years since accepting first undergraduate level students in Turkey, there are 30 undergraduate level programs in total, except the three were closed. 

As a result of the studies carried out by our association, you can learn more about the current industrial design and industrial product design programs available at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Turkey below. The following information is updated every year by the Higher Education Institution.