Gender Studies, Social Science Research
Analysing inequalities, promoting justice
Gender Studies provides you with advanced training in the field of gender studies. This specialisation gathers students and faculty broadly from social sciences, humanities and arts to develop innovative ways of expanding knowledge on gender, sexuality and racialisation in local, historical, cross-cultural and transnational contexts.
The studies engage you with wide-ranging and interdisciplinary traditions in gender studies, including feminist, queer, trans and antiracist studies. You will obtain both theoretical and methodological tools to understand and analyse how gender, sexuality and racialisation shape societies and cultures; how inequalities can be observed and tackled in different societal spheres, including, for instance, institutions and politics, workplaces, everyday life, intimate relations, media and the arts. You will familiarise yourself with cutting-edge research from this exciting and growing area of study.
Gender Studies examine key feminist theories and methodologies and explores the ways in which gender intersects with other differences, such as sexuality, class, age, ability, race, and ethnicity. The scope and extent of Gender Studies is unique. As a joint programme of Tampere University, the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, you will benefit from several special research and teaching profiles of gender studies. This guarantees a wide interdisciplinary expertise.
Master’s Programme in Social Science Research focuses on the contemporary issues and problems of governance, conflicts and policy in the globalizing world/society. The programme consists of the following academically independent specialisations with distinct study profiles:
- Comparative Social Policy and Welfare
- Gender Studies
- Global and Transnational Sociology
- Public Policy Analysis
Tampere University - Studying at the Faculty of Social Sciences
Type
Degree earned
Planned duration
Extent of studies
City
Campus
Tuition fee for non-EU/EEA citizens
Link to scholarship programme
After completing the specialisation Gender Studies in the Master’s Programme in Social Science Research you will have
- gained interdisciplinary understanding on gender, sexuality and racialisation in society
- learned skills and knowledge to work independently with key theoretical and methodological traditions of feminist knowledge production
- comprehended how inequalities organise and shape social life and practices, institutions, bodies, affects and identities
- learned to design, conduct and report critical feminist academic research
- gained expertise on promoting and practicing equality and equal opportunities in various contexts in society
Gender Studies provides advanced training in the field of gender studies for both Finnish and foreign students with a variety of academic backgrounds and career plans.
The scope and extent of Gender Studies is unique. As a result of the co-operation between Tampere University, the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, it combines several special research and teaching profiles of gender studies. This guarantees a wide interdisciplinary expertise.
Testifying to the strength and success of Gender Studies research, “Gender, institutions and politics” is mentioned as a top research field at Tampere University. This reflects the significance, impact and high quality of gender studies at both national and international levels. Current research topics include (1) politics, economy and activism (struggles around gender equality and diversity, equality policies and feminist politics within parliaments, political parties, labour markets, civil society, and grassroots level); (2) science, technology and higher education (the relation between knowledge production, power and social justice; technology in everyday life; health), (3) politics of affect (how affects and emotions emerge through social and intimate relations, intersectional differences, bodily boundaries, cultural imaginaries, and representations) as well as (4) working life (changes, continuities and new forms of work). The aim of Gender Studies is to integrate students into on-going research. At Tampere University, a wide network across disciplinary boundaries of gender researchers also organises regular research seminars.
At the University of Turku, the Master's Programme in Gender Studies is organised by the Faculty of Humanities. Students also have the possibility to benefit from many other courses offered by the other programmes within the University. The main research areas are: academic feminism, research on affects, new materialism, trans studies.
At Åbo Akademi University, the Master’s Degree Programme in Gender Studies is also a part of the Master’s Programme in Social Exclusion. Students will be able to take courses offered by both programs, and benefit from Åbo Akademi University’s broader specialization in Minority Research. Gender Studies department’s key research and teaching areas are post- and decolonial feminisms, intersectionality, youth culture, activism, migration, and the media.
The tuition fee of the programme is 10 000 euros per academic year for non-EU/EEA students with a scholarship system for fee-paying students. For more information, please see Tuition Fees and Scholarships.
Studies in specialisation Gender Studies in the Master’s Programme in Social Science Research consist of the following elements:
- Advanced Studies in Gender Studies (85 credits) form the core of the degree. They enable the students to acquire in-depth theoretical, methodological and conceptual knowledge in Gender Studies. The studies include a Master’s thesis (40 credits) which is an individual research project that enables the student to demonstrate his/her in-depth knowledge in an area relevant to the content of this specialisation.
- Joint Studies (17-22 credits) focus on general orientation to studies, research methods, language studies and academic writing skills.
- Free Choice Course Units (13-18 credits)
For more information, please see the Curriculum.
Gender Studies is especially suited for students aiming at careers in national and international research, politics, equal opportunities policies and human rights institutions and organisations in the private and public sectors as well as in non-governmental organisations and civil society, and the media. Gender Studies teaches written and oral communication skills, collaborative work skills and skills to critically examine power relationships.
In addition to studies in one’s own Master’s Programme and specialization, students may take full advantage of the teaching offered by the Tampere higher education community ranging from technical to vocational studies in various fields.
The degree provides eligibility for doctoral studies in Social Sciences and Humanities. At Tampere University, students can continue, for example, to doctoral studies in the Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences.
Carefully read through the general eligibility criteria and the programme-specific eligibility criteria and see whether you meet them. For additional questions on applying, application documents and application process, please contact our Admissions office.For questions regarding the content of the programme, please contact soc.studies.tau@tuni.fi.
There is no intake to this specialisation in the 2022 application round.
Click to see the admission criteria
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Eligibility criteria in the Master's degree programmes consist of two parts: Tampere University's general eligibility criteria, and programme-specific eligibility criteria, which specify and/or add information to the general criteria. You must meet both to be considered eligible. Applicants who do not meet both the general eligibility and the programme-specific eligibility criteria will not be selected.
General eligibility criteria:
To be eligible to apply to a Master’s degree programme at Tampere University, you must have
- a completed university level Bachelor's degree or equivalent in the field of the desired Master's degree programme or in a closely related subject AND
- a good command of English for academic purposes. For more information, please see Language requirements.
A Bachelor’s degree completed in a university outside Finland must provide eligibility to university-level master’s degree studies in the country in question.
Programme-specific eligibility criteria:
Each Master's degree programme can define more detailed eligibility criteria including, for example, more specific requirements of the applicant's previous education. These criteria will be decided and published yearly for the following application round.
To be eligible to apply to the Master’s degree programme in Gender Studies, you must fulfil the Tampere University general eligibility criteria. Studies in the field of Gender Studies are considered as a merit.
The number of eligible applicants annually exceeds the number of students that can be accepted. The student selection is made by an admissions committee on the basis of the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents. Please note that not all eligible applicants can be admitted.
Applicants who are in the final year of their Bachelor's degree
You are eligible to apply in the final year of your Bachelor’s degree if the degree will be completed and you are able to send an officially certified copy of the degree certificate and final transcript of records by post by the given deadline (around end of July, exact date to be given later). In this case, you can be admitted to a Master's programme conditionally. If you do not submit an officially certified copy of your degree certificate to Tampere University by the given deadline, your conditional admission will expire.
You must submit evidence on a good command of English for academic purposes. There are two ways of indicating English language proficiency: language tests and previous studies.
English language tests
The minimum English language test result requirements:
|
IELTS Academic |
TOEFL |
PTE Academic |
CAE/CPE |
|
6,5 |
iBT: 92 paper-based: 580 |
62 |
C1 Advanced/CAE: C |
Previous studies
In all Tampere University Master’s programmes it is possible to be exempted from submitting a language test score if you have completed certain studies.
In the Tampere University Master’s programmes it is possible to be exempted from submitting a language test score if you completed your secondary education and/or have taken a higher education degree in English in Finland or other EU/EEA country, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, or the United States. You must have resided in the country while studying.
In the Master's programme in Gender Studies, also the following studies exempt you from submitting a language test score. Please note that you may fit into several of the categories. Please choose the one you feel is most appropriate.
- A Bachelor’s degree completed in a Finnish university or university of applied sciences in Finnish or Swedish. The compulsory foreign language course included in the degree must be completed in the English language.
Please note that in addition to assessing your previous studies in terms of eligibility, we assess them also to determine the level of your English skills based on the grades. If you feel your grades do not give the right impression of your English skills, we strongly recommend that you take a language test to indicate your proficiency in English.
Students are selected to the programme from those applicants who fulfil the official eligibility criteria. Candidates for admission should be well qualified and capable of benefiting from the study programme in question.
The student selection is made by an admissions committee on the basis of the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents. Please note that not all applicants fulfilling the requirements can be admitted.
Applicants with a Master’s degree will be admitted to the programme only for well-founded reasons.
Application step-by-step
- Check the admission criteria
- Start preparing your application documents as early as possible!
- If required book a time for the language test
- Fill in the online application at Studyinfo.fi during the application period and upload required enclosures for the application
- Send the officially certified copies of your educational documents by post to Tampere University Admissions Office by 30 January 2019. The documents must reach the University by the given deadline.
- Wait for the admission results
- Accept the offer of admission by the given deadline
- Pay the tuition fee, if required
- Register as a student and join the Tampere University community!
Application process in detail
Select the Master's degree programme you wish to apply to. Carefully read through the general eligibility criteria and programme-specific eligibility criteria and see whether you meet them. Applicants who do not meet the general and programme-specific eligiblity criteria will not be selected.
Check which application documents you are required to submit and make sure to obtain them in time. Remember to check if there are any country-specific requirements for your documents. Please note that some documents may be required to be sent separately by a third party. Make sure also these documents are delivered in time.
When applying to the Master’s programmes you usually must demonstrate your proficiency in English with an internationally recognised academic language test report. We advise all 2019 applicants needing an international language test score to book for a test date well in advance, as test dates are filling up fast in the autumn and it may take several weeks for the test result to reach Tampere University.
Application documents
Online application form
The online application form will be available during the application period only at Studyinfo.fi. The application period starts 4 December 2018 at 8 am (GMT+2) and ends 23 January 2019 at 3 pm (GMT+2).
Required enclosures
Some application enclosures are the same in all Tampere University Master’s programmes while some are programme-specific. There are seven Tampere University general application enclosures.
You will need to upload all application documents online at Studyinfo.fi. In addition to uploading the application documents on the application, you must submit the officially certified copies of your educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office by post. You must send the educational documents by post to Tampere University Admissions Office so that they arrive by 30 January 2019.
You can find the list of the required enclosures and further instructions on the Application documents webpage.
Please give the name, organisation, position and contact information including e-mail address for two academic/professional persons who can provide recommendations. If needed, we may contact them.
Master's programme in Gender Studies only requires the Tampere University general application enclosures, there are no programme-specific enclosures.
Country-specific requirements for application documents
Applicants whose degrees have been awarded in certain countries need to pay special attention to the documentation before submitting it. In addition to the standard document requirements, educational documents from certain countries must be submitted in a particular way. Note that the degree awarding country may be a different one from the country where the studies are taken. These country-specific requirements must always be followed first and foremost, prior to any regular requirements for attesting documents.
More information on the country-specific requirements for educational documents.
Admissions results will be announced by early April 2019. All applicants will be informed about the admissions results.
Please see Tampere University's general instructions concerning rectification procedure.
Click to see the admission criteria
Show
Eligibility criteria in the Master's degree programmes consist of two parts: Tampere University's general eligibility criteria, and programme-specific eligibility criteria, which specify and/or add information to the general criteria. You must meet both to be considered eligible. Applicants who do not meet both the general eligibility and the programme-specific eligibility criteria will not be selected as students in Tampere University.
General eligibility
To be eligible to apply to a Master’s degree programme at Tampere University, you must have:
- Bachelor’s degree - nationally recognized first cycle degree*
- which corresponds to at least 180 ECTS (European credits) or to three years of full-time study
- from a relevant field for the Master’s degree programme that you’re applying to
- from an recognised institution of higher education
- The Bachelor’s degree completed in a university outside Finland must provide eligibility for university-level master’s degree studies in the country in which it was awarded.
- AND a good command of the English language for academic purposes. For more information, please see Language requirements.
*Please see detailed information on the General eligibility criteria web page.
Applicants in their final year of the Bachelor’s degree are eligible to apply if the degree will be completed by 31 July 2021. In this case, they would be accepted conditionally. Please see special instructions for applicants in the final year of the Bachelor's degree.
Admission to studies leading directly to a master's degree will be based on the applicant’s bachelor's degree conferred by a university or a university of applied sciences. Depending on programme-specific admission requirements, the programme may take into account skills previously acquired by applicants when considering applications.
A previously completed master’s degree will not make applicants ineligible for admission. However, applicants who are applying for admission to pursue a second master’s degree will only be admitted for particularly weighty reasons.
Programme specific eligibility criteria
To be eligible to apply to the Master's Programme in Social Science Research - specialisation in Gender Studies, you must fulfil the Tampere University general eligibility criteria. Studies in the field of Gender Studies are considered as a merit.
10 students are admitted into the specialization in Gender Studies.
Students are selected to the programme from those applicants who submit a complete application (application and sufficient application documents by the deadline) and fulfil the official eligibility criteria.
The student selection is made by an admissions committee based on the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents. Please note that not all applicants fulfilling the requirements can be admitted.
The number of eligible applicants annually exceeds the number of students that can be accepted. The student selection is made by an admissions committee on the basis of the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents.
In the selection process, the following judgmental requirements are evaluated as a composite:
- High enough academic performance in Bachelor’s degree studies
- General quality of all previous university studies
- Specific quality of all previous university studies: documented interest in Gender Studies
- Evidently high academic motivation to study in this specialization at the Tampere University
The applicants with the best combination of merits will be selected.
You will need to upload copies of all required documents as enclosures on the application form. In addition to the general application enclosures, some programmes have listed additional programme-specific enclosures that are needed when applying to these programmes.
You will need to upload all required enclosures on your application form online at Studyinfo.fi. In addition to uploading, you must submit officially certified copies of your educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office by post. Applicants whose degrees have been awarded in certain countries need to pay special attention to the documentation and documents from these countries must be submitted in a particular way. These country-specific requirements must always be followed first and foremost, prior to the regular requirements.
Applicants must post the educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office so that they arrive by 27 January 2021 at 15.00 GMT+2. You can find the list of the required general application enclosures and further instructions on the Application documents webpage.
There are no programme-specific enclosures when applying to this programme.
Click to see the admission criteria
Show
Eligibility criteria in the Master's degree programmes consist of two parts: Tampere University's general eligibility criteria, and programme-specific eligibility criteria, which specify and/or add information to the general criteria. You must meet both to be considered eligible. Applicants who do not meet both the general eligibility and the programme-specific eligibility criteria will not be selected as students in Tampere University.
General eligibility
To be eligible to apply to a Master’s degree programme at Tampere University, you must have:
- Bachelor’s degree - nationally recognized first cycle degree*
- which corresponds to at least 180 ECTS (European credits) or to three years of full-time study
- from a relevant field for the Master’s degree programme that you’re applying to
- from an recognised institution of higher education
- The Bachelor’s degree completed in a university outside Finland must provide eligibility for university-level master’s degree studies in the country in which it was awarded.
- AND a good command of the English language for academic purposes. For more information, please see Language requirements.
*Please see detailed information on the General eligibility criteria web page.
Applicants in their final year of the Bachelor’s degree are eligible to apply if the degree will be completed by 31 July 2021. In this case, they would be accepted conditionally. Please see special instructions for applicants in the final year of the Bachelor's degree.
Admission to studies leading directly to a master's degree will be based on the applicant’s bachelor's degree conferred by a university or a university of applied sciences. Depending on programme-specific admission requirements, the programme may take into account skills previously acquired by applicants when considering applications.
A previously completed master’s degree will not make applicants ineligible for admission. However, applicants who are applying for admission to pursue a second master’s degree will only be admitted for particularly weighty reasons.
Programme specific eligibility criteria
To be eligible to apply to the Master's Programme in Social Science Research - specialisation in Gender Studies, you must fulfil the Tampere University general eligibility criteria. Studies in the field of Gender Studies are considered as a merit.
10 students are admitted into the specialisation in Gender Studies.
Students are selected to the programme from those applicants who submit a complete application (application and sufficient application documents by the deadline) and fulfil the official eligibility criteria.
The student selection is made by an admissions committee based on the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents. Please note that not all applicants fulfilling the requirements can be admitted.
The number of eligible applicants annually exceeds the number of students that can be accepted. The student selection is made by an admissions committee on the basis of the academic qualifications and merits shown in the application documents.
In the selection process, the following judgmental requirements are evaluated as a composite:
- High enough academic performance in Bachelor’s degree studies
- General quality of all previous university studies
- Specific quality of all previous university studies: documented interest in Gender Studies
- Evidently high academic motivation to study in this specialization at the Tampere University
The applicants with the best combination of merits will be selected.
You will need to upload copies of all required documents as enclosures on the application form. In addition to the general application enclosures, some programmes have listed additional programme-specific enclosures that are needed when applying to these programmes.
You will need to upload all required enclosures on your application form online at Studyinfo.fi. In addition to uploading, you must submit officially certified copies of your educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office by post. Applicants whose degrees have been awarded in certain countries need to pay special attention to the documentation and documents from these countries must be submitted in a particular way. These country-specific requirements must always be followed first and foremost, prior to the regular requirements.
Applicants must post the educational documents to Tampere University Admissions Office so that they arrive by 27 January 2021 at 15.00 GMT+2. You can find the list of the required general application enclosures and further instructions on the Application documents webpage.
There are no programme-specific enclosures when applying to this programme.
