Master's Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research (PEACE)

The programme is organised in cooperation with Åbo Akademi University in Vasa (Department of Social Sciences, Developmental psychology).

Application period runs from 1 December 2011 until 15 February 2012

• Major subject: Peace and Conflict Research, International Relations, Administrative Science, History, Psychology or Social Anthropology
• Extent: 120 ECTS credits
• Duration: two academic years
• Programme period: autumn semester 2012 (late August) - spring semester 2014 (May)
• Website: www.uta.fi/yky/peace/index.html
• Coordinating unit at the University of Tampere: Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI) in cooperation with the School of Management and the School of Social Sciences and Humanities

Master’s Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research, which is organised jointly by Åbo Akademi University in Vasa and the University of Tampere, provides interdisciplinary approaches to research on the complex issues of peace and conflict in the contemporary world. These approaches aim to facilitate the understanding of the deep roots of wars and conflicts as well as their short and long term consequences. This Master’s Programme also studies the preconditions for conflict resolution and peace in local as well as in international and global contexts.

In this Master’s Programme peace and conflicts are understood as processes, thus the programme helps to analyze not only the evolution of the conflicts, but also peace building, mediation and negotiation. A variety of approaches, procedures, tools and methods are analyzed in practical context within the Master’s Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research.

The programme aims to prepare students for postgraduate studies, independent research work, as well as for professional activity of various types in the society, ranging from interpersonal to international conflict situations.

Admission criteria    

• Academic requirements:
  
  • a three-year Bachelor, Master or equivalent diploma in a relevant field of study, e.g. Administrative Sciences, Business Administration, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Cultural Studies, Education or Human Geography
  • A good knowledge of English for academic purposes. For requirements, please see the Language requirements.
• Students are chosen from the applicants who fulfill the formal admission criteria on the basis of the relevance of their former studies and their success in these. In addition, work experience relevant to the programme or other relevant merits and qualifications may be taken into account. In the motivation letter within the application form, applicants are advised to explain their reasons for applying to this programme.
• Mastering of second foreign language is a merit.

In order to increase the chances of being admitted to this programme, applicants are advised that they may want to apply to both Åbo Akademi University and the University of Tampere. Note that in order to do so the applicant must complete an application form for each major subject and send in the application forms and the necessary sets of enclosures to both universities. If the applicant is applying to more than one major subject and verifying his/her language skills with the same language test, University Admissions Finland needs to receive the test result only once. The necessity of sending an application form and the necessary set of enclosures to both universities is due to the fact that the applications will be processed at each university separately. The applicant must also put the major subjects / universities applied to in order of preference (this is done by answering a question related to the order of preference in the application form). Please note that at the University of Tampere applicants are allowed to choose a maximum of two major subjects to which they wish to apply.