EFPTA

About The European Federation of Psychology Teachers' Associations

EFPTA Conference 2024 Helsinki

About EFPTA

The Federation  was established in March 2004 in Helsinki.

EFPTA members mainly comprise psychology teachers' associations in Europe: in 2023, the member countries are Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England & Wales, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. 

Click on the countries on the right to see information about their psychology courses and their psychology teachers' associations, including web addresses and contact details. If you do not see your country here, but you are a psychology teacher or you are interested in teaching psychology, we want to hear from you, so please contact us!

We normally organise a major conference every two years, with attendance by around 60-100 psychology teachers and students from a dozen countries. The most recent EFPTA Conference was held online in spring 2021. Full in-person conferences were previously held in Reykjavik (2018), Prague (2016), Berlin (2014), Copenhagen (2012), and Bratislava (2010). For our spring 2020 conference we had planned to return to Bratislava, however this had to be postponed until spring 2021 and held online due to the coronavirus pandemic. A useful by-product of the pandemic has been the increased availability of online meeting platforms such as Zoom, which has allowed the Board to 'meet' more frequently and also to run CPD webinars. See the Events pages for more info about both past and future conferences.  

 Conferences and meetings 2004-14 - EFPTA 10th anniversary slide show

The EFPTA Board (or Committee) includes representatives of all member associations and a small number of Advisors with specific expertise. Two Board meetings are normally held every year, in European cities; since spring 2020 most meetings have been held online, but fortunately spring 2022 saw in-person meetings start up again, in Odense, hosted by the Danish association. This was a hybrid meeting, which is a very inclusive format. In addition to the association representatives and Advisors, every member of each member association is entitled to attend Board meetings if they wish, as observers.  

EFPTA receives support  from some member countries' national psychologists' associations, including Suomen Psykologiliitto (Finland) and the British Psychological Society (UK). Modest financial support is also provided by educational institutions in various countries.

EFPTA has no paid staff: organisation of events, and all ongoing administrative tasks, are carried out by Board members and colleagues on a completely voluntary basis.

 

EFPTA and EFPA

EFPTA was accepted as an Affiliate Member of the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA) in July  2009. View this report on affiliation, from 2009. Click here for past editions of reports and newssheets (on the EFPA site). EFPTA ended its membership of EFPA in 2024 after EFPA closed the Affiliate membership category. EFPTA was an active member of the EFPA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA), collaborating on many research projects and publications. Click here for more details.

Psychology education at pre-tertiary and university level

Although EFPTA’s focus is on pre-tertiary (pre-university) psychology education (PTPE), we have strong links with psychology education and educators at university level. The Federation has members who are involved in psychology education, and psychology teacher education, in universities, often with experience of cross-border collaborative working, as a result of the Bologna Process here

EFPTA also has links with other European educational organisations, most notably the European Society for Psychology Learning and Teaching (ESPLAT). ESPLAT embraces and supports psychology education at all levels, including at secondary school, not just at university level. At its inaugural conference in Utrecht in 2019, several EFPTA members led a round table session on pre-tertiary psychology education. ESPLAT's predecessor was EuroPlat, and EFPTA members participated in EuroPlat conferences in Salzburg (2017), Vilnius (2012) and Edinburgh (2010).