Departments
Department of Behavioural Sciences
and Philosophy
Department of Political Science
and Contemporary History
Department of Social Research
- Institutions and Social Mechanisms
- Centre for East Asian Studies
-
the Public Choice
Research Centre (PCRC)
Faculty of Social Sciences
The Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Turku was founded in 1967. Its academic tradition reaches back to 1640 when the Academy of Turku first was established. Today the Faculty of Social Sciences is an international, multidisciplinary institute providing education both in the Finnish and the English languages.
The mission of the Faculty of Social Sciences is to generate new information and understanding through research and to provide high-quality teaching. The Faculty constitutes a community of almost two thousand people. The members of this vibrant academic community – students, teachers and researchers – respond to the challenges of our time by analysing its social phenomena. The teaching given in the Faculty is based on the most up-todate research available, but also makes the students familiar with the history of their discipline and its research traditions. There are currently about 1800 students actively pursuing their studies within the Faculty. The Faculty educates experts who are well versed in various social phenomena in different cultures, and who bear responsibility for the promotion of human values both locally and globally.
Research and Teaching in the Faculty
In the Faculty of Social Sciences research is conducted on all central disciplines on the field of social sciences. Political Science and Sociology produce information on the core areas of societal research. Social Work, Social Policy, Contemporary History, Philosophy, Psychology, Logopedics, Statistics and Economic Sociology are placed in the Faculty as well.
The Faculty offers a wide range of programmes and courses in English both for Finnish and foreing students. Exchange students arriving through exchange programmes can choose courses from several departments, the most common choices being courses provided by the Finnish Society and Culture and the European Studies minors.
The Faculty offers two master programmes conducted entirely in English. The Institions and Social Mechanisms Master Programme (IASM) concentrates on the analyzing of the role of institutions and basic structures in society. The East Asian studies programme offers education and research on the multidisciplinary field of Asian regional studies.
PhD studies are offered both in Finnish and in English within the Faculty. Due to the independent nature of doing reasearch in Finland the PhD programmes offer few courses but are more concentrated on the individual effort of the student supervised by a research professional. The Faculty also has two so called international top research units. The Public Choice Research Center utilizes the methods of microeconomics and analytic philosophy to the study of political and social life. The Research Unit for Sociology of Education focuses on education and work in its research.
The international cooperation of the Faculty does not limit itself in to incoming students as many students and staff members of the Faculty travel to study or to do research abroad every year. The Faculty as a wide selection of partner universities across the world.