The coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to discourage students from studying abroad, since the international Master’s degree programmes taught in English at the University of Eastern Finland attracted a record number of applications this year. There were a total of 1,996 applicants to the university’s 20 Master’s degree programmes taught in English, which is 4.8% more than last year.
“Our Master’s degree programmes are increasingly attractive, thanks to their persistent development. The programmes are built to be competitive by investing in their quality of education and systematic marketing. Our success in the highly competitive international education market also essentially relies on the university’s strong profile in research”, Academic Rector Tapio Määttä says. The most popular programmes this year were International Business and Sales Management (300 applicants), Public Health (299 applicants) and Information Technology (226 applicants). The largest numbers of applications were received from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Finland.
Among the most popular programmes is the university’s new, multi-disciplinary programme in educational sciences, the Master’s Degree Programme in Pedagogy and Teaching for Sustainability, which attracted a total of 113 applications. The programme addresses education, learning and teaching from the viewpoints of sustainable development. “For the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education, the new programme is a significant opening. The programme seeks to strengthen the school’s international outlook by training experts in pedagogy who are capable of taking the goals of sustainable development into consideration. Rapid changes in the field of education and teaching call for a re-evaluation of pedagogy from the viewpoint of sustainable development, and this is what the programme seeks to achieve,” Professor of Educational Science and the programme’s director Sari Havu-Nuutinen says.
“Our new Master’s degree programme attracted applicants from all over the world. Many of them have said that in their country, taking sustainable development goals into consideration in education is still in its infancy. We have a pioneering programme with a unique profile, and I believe that our future student body will be both motivated and enthusiastic,” Programme Coordinator Juuso Loikkanen says. Marketing of the university’s international Master’s degree programmes was targeted at non-EU and EEA countries in particular. The university has also renewed its admissions website and stayed in active contact with prospective students throughout the year. During this exceptional year, the university’s international marketing efforts also witnessed dozens of virtual events, including applicant and marketing seminars, and virtual student fairs as a new introduction.
Source: University of Eastern Finland
