Discovering other nations, your nation – and yourself
Most of the students in the Master’s degree programmes at the University of Turku are international. Karoliina Backman is one of the first Finnish “returnees" generated by the new two-tier degree system.She got her matriculation certificate from the Tampereen lyseo upper secondary school in Finland and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Glasgow, UK. Karoliina is now studying towards a Master’s degree at the University of Turku.
Backman's autumn has got off to a good start. She is particularly satisfied with the small group sizes and the personal approach to study guidance, as well as the versatile range of language courses that the University’s Language Centre offers free of charge. Backman, who attended the Central and Eastern European Studies programme in Glasgow, is also satisfied with the programme content, but most of all with the good community spirit and dynamism of her own class.
- My peers come from every corner of the world: from Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, Asia….We do a lot of group work, and our global perspective makes it all very unique.
Multidisciplinary programme offers new perspectives
The over decade-old Baltic Sea Region Studies programme has pioneered international studies and student recruitment at the University of Turku. This is the fourth year it offers a two-year Master’s degree programme in compliance with the new degree system. The programme also includes courses given in English at the intermediate study level to exchange students and to Finnish degree students interested in the subject.
- Multi- and interdisciplinarity are our primary objectives. Individual programme modules do not focus solely on the history, geography, culture or politics of the Baltic Sea region. We also want to provide new perspectives on the topics, explains Marko Lehti, Adjunct Professor and Academic Director of the programme.
For example, the course dealing with the history of the Baltic Sea region does not proceed chronologically from the Middle Ages to modern times. We examine the challenges posed by history writing and the collective memory: the ways in which history manifests its presence in society, how it is politicised and how it turns into, for example, a history of guilt or national pride, he adds.
- We recently set up a joint 25-credit minor subject module, Baltic Sea Business and Society, with the Pan-European Institute of the Turku School of Economics. It caters to Finnish and international degree students at the University of Turku and the School of Economics, says Tarja Hyppönen, Programme Coordinator.
Donata Vitkute, from Lithuania, graduated from the programme last spring and quickly found a challenging job after returning to her home country.
- I work in the Structural funds management division of the Regional Policy department at the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior. I am mainly involved in preparing measures for the operational programme of the EU structural funds for the 2007–2013 period and in cooperating with the social and economic partners of Lithuania.
Vitkute believes the programme in Turku gave her excellent abilities to work in international development tasks:
- What I found to be most valuable was to examine politics, history and people from a different perspective than I used to in Lithuania. Studies abroad offer an experience that is very useful not only for professional growth but also for personal self-evaluation.
Worldwide marketing
- We offer joint programmes. Students who go for this option usually study a semester before their thesis work in Tartu, Riga or Kaunas or take part in an independent exchange programme in Berlin, says Lehti.
According to Hyppönen, co-operation between universities in the Baltic Sea region is very active. A marketing project funded by the EU has enabled a worldwide tour to recruit students from the USA, Canada, Russia, India, the Ukraine and China. In June 2009, the University of Turku and the University of Gdansk will jointly host an international Workshop for Multipliers, which aims to provide people working in international duties and ministries with further knowledge about the Baltic Sea region.
In the photos above students from the Baltic Sea Regions Master's Programme
More information about the Master's Degree Programme in Baltic Sea Region
Text: Kati Kaarlehto
Photos: Vesa-Matti Väärä