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Ethnic Relations, Cultural Diversity and Integration (ERI) (M. Soc. Sc)
University of Helsinki
Masters Programmes in English
| Application Deadline: | January 31 | ||
| Annual Tuition Fee: | Free - | ||
| Location: | Helsinki / Finland / View location on map ▾ Hide location on map ▴ | ||
| Duration: | 24 months | Start Date: | August, September |
| Educational Form: |
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| Education Variants: |
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| Credits (ECTS): | 120 | ||
| Languages: | English | ||
Location of University of Helsinki
Globally, addressing the issues related to the field of ethnic relations constitutes one of the most essential institutional challenges at the beginning of the 21st century. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for professionals who are trained to meet these challenges.
The Master's Degree Programme in Ethnic Relations, Cultural Diversity and Integration (ERI) offers the tools needed to deal with issues that culturally diverse society and their institutions encounter.
In ERI, students choose one of the three majors; Political Science, Sociology, or Social Psychology. Besides focusing on the advanced major studies, the students attend thematic courses and carry out studies in social science methodology. ERI aims at giving its students a common ground for analyzing intergroup phenomena, the consequences of migration and their implications for social relations and political processes.
A particular strength of ERI is that it offers students the opportunity to work under the close supervision of leading experts from the participating Departments and from the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN).
Upon the successful completion of the programme, the graduates are awarded a Master of Social Sciences in their major subject with a specialisation in ethnic relations, cultural diversity and integration. Graduates of ERI will be qualified to position themselves in both the private as well as the public sector, in the units of governmental administration on local, regional, national and international levels. One of the main goals of ERI is also to prepare the students for a continuing academic career with the objective of obtaining a doctoral degree.
ERI is a full-time two-year Master’s programme offered by The Swedish School of Social Science and the Departments of Political Science, Sociology and Social Psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Contents
Major subjects
Students choose between three main subjects in the programme: Sociology
Sociology is the study of the structure of society and its associated changes. This includes the study of institutions, organisations and societies; their associated social behaviour and networks, as well as the human values, attitudes and manner of expression. Sociological attention focuses on societies at both the macro and micro level. This means that sociologists study global, national as well as more intimate social relationships.
The sociological perspective enables students to question everyday concepts. A fundamental advantage of the sociological perspective is that it has the potential to be critical. The perspective allows students to diverge from everyday ways of thinking and disclose research findings that point to hidden social problems.
Social Psychology
Social psychology is a discipline concerned with the systematic study of humans in interaction with their social environment. The discipline seeks to describe, understand and explain human action and relations within a social context.
Typically, the problems that social psychology deals with lie somewhere between the fields of sociology and psychology. The main areas of social psychological theory include the influence of social factors on individual development, the formation and change of attitudes, beliefs and social consciousness, the shaping of personality and identity in society, the regularities of interpersonal face-to-face interaction, small group processes and intergroup relations.
Political Science
Students choose between two subprogrammes:
The subprogramme of Politics - focuses on political theory, the phenomenon of politics in different areas of life, political systems in different countries, the political knowledge and behaviour of citizens, political institutions and the ways in which they function, and political culture, including new political movements and the language of politics.
The subprogramme of Administration and Organisations - concentrates on public organisations and different types of leadership, the EU, the culture and ethics of administration and organisations, comparison of various national forms of administration, international organisations, and the reform and assessment of national and international forms of administration.
Thematic Focus
To the extent that Europe is involved in the sweeping processes of economic, cultural and political transformations observable at a global scale, it is also becoming a more diverse continent. In many cases, the increased heterogeneity caused by immigration interacts with previous layers of diversity, as represented by “old” ethnic and national minorities, as well as gender, class and sexuality. Against this background, it is hardly an exaggeration to state that coming to terms with diversity constitutes a great institutional challenge for virtually all European societies at the beginning of the 21st century.
Finland offers a particularly rich setting for studying a wide range of ethnic relations, which stretch from the Sámi, the indigenous group in the North, to the Swedish speaking minority and the different immigrant groups concentrated in the Helsinki area. The programme can be considered rather unique in this respect. To this adds the context of the Baltic region, with is a laboratory for assessing the interplay of European integration, nationalism and minority politics, as well as the fact that Finland is both a Nordic welfare state with high
levels of gender equality and a bridge between the East and the West.
Although the program aims at offering a general and comprehensive approach to the study of ethnic relations, there are certain themes which ERI is specialising on. The thematic courses provided by the participating disciplines often deal with topics such as migration, integration, identity, the relationship between minorities and majorites, transnationalism, acculturation and prejudice.
IELTS
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
Take testRequirements
1) The applicant should have a Bachelor ’s degree from a recognised and internationally acknowledged University by 2.8.2011 in one of the following disciplines:
* Social Psychology - or a closely related discipline with studies equivalent to basic and intermediate studies in Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki
* Sociology - or a closely related discipline with studies equivalent to basic and intermediate studies in Sociology at the University of Helsinki
* Political Science - or a closely related discipline with studies equivalent to basic and intermediate studies in Political Science at the University of Helsinki
* PLEASE NOTE ! APPLICANTS SHOULD APPLY TO THE MAJOR SUBJECT WHICH IS CLOSEST TO THE MAJOR/ LARGE MINOR IN THE BACHELOR DEGREE.
For example, it is not possible to be admitted to the Social Psychology major with a BA in Political Science or vice versa.
Additional Requirements
| Minimal degree required: | Bachelor's degree |
| Minimal amount of work experience | Not specified |
Language Proficiency
| IELTS Band: | 6.5 |
| Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE): | Grade C (Score: 60) |
| TOEFL Paper-based: | 580 |
| TOEFL Internet-based: | 92 |
Accreditation
Finnish Universities are accredited by the law. Universities are responsible for the quality and continuous development of their education and other operations. Legislation also requires them to regularly perform external evaluations of their operations and quality systems and to publish the results of such evaluations. Finnish HEIs decide on their own quality systems, and the comprehensiveness, functioning and effectiveness of the systems are evaluated in the audits, which are valid for six years.
Ask a Question
You can contact International Admissions Services to ask a question about Ethnic Relations, Cultural Diversity and Integration (ERI) (M. Soc. Sc) at University of Helsinki.
Relevant Links
- Programme Website
- University website
- Tuition Fees & Costs
- Grants & Scholarships
- International Student Services
- Exchange students
- City website
- Study in Finland
- Tourist guide to Finland
- Ministry of Education and Culture
- University Admissions Finland
- Online Application to Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland
- Student experiences about Finland - STeXX.eu
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