Welcome to the websites of the postgraduate studies of
the School of Social Sciences and Humanities!

School of Social Sciences and Humanities  
Licentiate's and Doctor's Degree in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities

School of Social Sciences and Humanities

The School of Social Sciences and Humanities is one of the largest schools at the University of Tampere. The total permanent teaching staff numbers 300, and the number of students is approximately 2700, of which over 450 are postgraduate students.

The School offers postgraduate degrees in all these disciplines:  

Gender Studies (former Women's Studies), History, Logopaedics, Music Studies (former Ethnomusicology ) Philosophy, Psychology, Social Anthropology, Social Policy, Social Psychology, Social Work, Sociology and as a new study field, Peace and Conflict Research.  

The Unit of Pori offers postgraduate degrees in the disciplines of Social Policy, Social Work and Sociology.  

The decision-making body of the School is the Board. The Dean of the School is chosen by the University Board. 

Licentiate's and Doctor's Degree in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities

The studies consist of two levels: the Licentiate's degree and the Doctor's degree. The Licentiate's degree is an intermediate but optional step towards a Doctor's degree. In many fields, the Licentiate's degree is developing towards a more professional degree. Such an alternative already exists in Psychology and in Social Work. At the moment, these professionally oriented degrees can be taken in Finnish only. One admission criteria is the capability to act in the profession of a psychologist / a social worker according to the Finnish legislation.

The degrees in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Tampere are as follows:   

• Licentiate of Philosophy, Doctor of Philosophy.
• Licentiate of Arts (Psychology), Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology). The Licentiate degree is divided into general and professionally oriented options. 
• Licentiate of Social Sciences, Doctor of Social Sciences. In the field of Social Work, there is a Specialized Social Worker's Licentiate degree, which is more practical than that of the Licentiate of Social Sciences and the two degrees are not comparable.

Major subject alternatives in the degree of Licentiate of Philosophy are

• Music Studies
• Philosophy
• History or
• Logopaedics. 

Major subject alternatives in the degree of Doctor of Philosophy are

• Music Studies
• Philosophy
• History
• Logopaedics
• Social Anthropology
• Social Policy
• Social Psychology
• Social Work
• Sociology or
• Gender Studies
• Psychology or
• The study field of Peace and Conflict Research.

The major subject in the degrees of Licentiate of Arts/Psychology and Doctor of Philosophy/ Psychology is Psychology.

Major subject alternatives in the degrees of Licentiate of Social Sciences and Doctor of Social Sciences are

• Social Anthropology
• Social Policy
• Social Psychology
• Social Work
• Sociology   
• Gender Studies or
• The study field of Peace and Conflict Research.  

In addition to this, the postgraduate studies in Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work can be carried out at the Unit of Pori. Applicants need to indicate the unit they are applying for in the application form.

Doctoral Programmes

Licentiate’s and Doctor’s degrees are pursued in some of the four doctoral programmes of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities. The doctoral programmes are:

• Philosophy
• History
• Psychology and Logopaedics
• Social Sciences 

The doctoral programme in Social Sciences includes the disciplines of Gender Studies, Music Studies, Sociology, Social Psychology, Social Anthropology, Social Policy and Social Work, and the research field of Peace and Conflict Research. 

Doctoral programmes require independent research and an extensive thesis. The doctoral thesis must be published and defended in a public debate. Programmes also include other studies, some general and some more specialised. More information on the studies and the curricula for the doctoral programmes here.

In theory full-time studies for a Licentiate's degree take two to three years and for a Doctor's degree four years, but in practice very often much longer. There is strong pressure to shorten the period of study to four of five years also in practice.