Master Programme
Master in Baltic Sea Region Studies – an Outline
The Centre for Baltic Sea Region Studies (CEBAST) is currently setting up a two-year Master programme in Baltic Sea Region Studies.
The Master curriculum, which will be taught entirely in English, is interdisciplinary—including such disciplines as Political Science, Economics, Cultural Studies and Law—and will place a particular emphasis on the comparative analysis of developments at the national, regional and European level occurring in the Baltic Sea area since the end of the Cold War.
The target group is students with a bachelor degree in Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, History, Cultural Studies, European Studies or related fields of study.
This degree programme will be particularly aimed at specialising analysts, civil servants, public and private sectors employees who have a particular interest in the countries of the Baltic Sea region.
As shown in the figure below, the Master programme will be divided into four semesters:
1st semester | Mandatory introductory seminar (30 ECTS) |
2nd semester | Specialised courses at CEBAST (e.g. democratisation, security, regionalism, European studies, etc.) or at partner universities. (30 ECTS) |
3rd semester | Fieldwork/internship (30 ECTS) |
4th semester | Dissertation writing (30 ECTS) |
The first semester will be devoted to introduce students to the theoretical, methodological and empirical problems of the Baltic Sea Region as an area of study with its multidimensional (political, economic, social, etc.) and multileveled (local, national, cross-border and international) aspects. The semester will be composed of a guest lectures series and workshop. The guest lectures are delivered by invited academics or practitioners involved in different fields of Baltic Sea Region politics. The workshop will represent the analytical bulk of the course, with a course coordinator introducing students to the various themes defining the region and interacting with the students in class discussions and group-work.
In the second semester, students will have the opportunity to specialise in one of the disciplines that compose the Master course. They will thus have the opportunity to analyse the region from analytical perspectives such as democratisation, security and regionalism, European studies, economic transformations, etc. Alternatively, students will have the opportunity during this semester to follow courses at one of the partner institutions across the Baltic Sea Region that also provide Master programmes in Baltic Sea Region Studies (Turku University, Finland; University of Kaunas, Lithuania; Tartu University, Estonia; University of Latvia in Riga).
The third semester will be dedicated to internships or fieldwork. Students will be able to choose among a wide range of governmental, non-governmental or corporate actors which currently cooperates with CEBAST to carry out this part of the programme (examples include: the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the Baltic Development Forum; the Union of the Baltic Cities etc.).
In their fourth semester, students will finalise their dissertation, which can either focus on a specific discipline among those provided during the courses, or retain the multidisciplinary character that inspires the programme.