SOVAKO, the Finnish Doctoral Program in Social Sciences

The presiding director of Sovako is professor Risto Heiskala from the University of Tampere. In charge of the administration is research coordinator Ari Rasimus as the contact person. The objective of Sovako is to integrate postgraduate education in Social Sciences in such a manner which enables the joint organisation of courses and programmes in the field (research methodology, for instance) as would not be reasonable for individual departments of the faculty. Sovako also provides information services for students in Social Sciences and other disciplines regarding the availability of doctoral education.

The operation of Sovako graduate school commenced in 1998 (-2002). The second period was 2003-2006. The third period is 2007-2011. There have been some organisational changes for the third period. Sovako is now called the Finnish Doctoral Program in Social Sciences, and Sovako coorodinates the cooperation of the five member schools and helps in organising courses, summer schools etc. The sixth member school "Multidisciplinary Graduate School for Cultural Policy: Organizing Creativity" will join Sovako 1.1.2010.

The lectures of the ESA Student Miniconference 2009 can be found in here .