Research
We carry out research to promote health and well-being and gain a deeper understanding of the management of social change.
We continued to recruit a new generation of professors to ensure our future success. We fared well in the Academy of Finland’s funding calls and improved our success rate in international funding calls. The number of senior researchers who receive competitive grants has increased, indicating that we have a broad base of researchers who undertake high-level research. The range and international dimension of our research outputs has likewise broadened, but we acknowledge that we have responsibility to generate research-based knowledge and provide information in Finnish about the changes going on in our society.
SOC is home to eight specialist research centres: the Gerontology Research Center (GEREC), Tampere Centre for Childhood, Youth and Family Research (PERLA), the Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies (Narrare), Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI), Tampere Centre for Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Trivium), the Research Center for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI), and the Work Research Centre (WRC). The Prostate Cancer Research Center (PCRC) is jointly operated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology. We have defined specific criteria for the establishment and discontinuation of research centres.
The New Social Research (NSR) profiling initiative has ended and been subsumed into our regular operations. Sustainable Welfare Systems (SWS), which received funding under the Profi5 programme, is an ongoing initiative of ours. We also play a key role in the Sustainable Transformation of Urban Environments (STUE) and Health Data Science (HDS) initiatives that are funded under the Academy of Finland’s Profi6 programme.
Researchers at the Academy-funded Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX) rethink historical experiences, historical explanations and historical knowledge and participate in public debate on the experiences of war, minorities, the welfare state and religious communities. The Gerontology Research Center (GEREC), which we operate in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä, likewise continued its prolific research activities.
Our researchers conduct a large number of innovative research studies each year. One example is Storytelling in Information Systems Development (INFOSTORY), a project funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation that takes a critical look at the development, implementation and media coverage of the customer and patient record system Apotti.
After the Covid-19 restrictions allowed it, we hosted several scientific conferences. The most large-scale event was the international IX Conference on Childhood Studies: Childhood and Time organised by the Tampere Centre for Childhood, Youth and Family Research (PERLA) in the spring of 2021. The conference brought together 500 or so participants.
We have several projects underway that are funded under different EU programmes. Senior Research Fellow Eeva Puumala received a competitive grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her study titled Emergent Community that examines coexistence and conflict in the age of complexity.
One of our new openings and research infrastructures is the Tampere Enterprise for Research Data Excellence (TERDE) established in the spring of 2021. TERDE addresses the growing challenges relating to the management, archiving and safe storage of research data and provides data management software to researchers.
Compared to 2020, our research output increased and the share of open-access publications of all our publications rose by almost 6%. The number of publications co-authored with international partners increased slightly as well. Overall, we can look back with satisfaction on the growth of our research output and the development of our research activities.
Education
The Faculty of Social Sciences educated professionals for the various sectors of society in eight degree programmes (Health Sciences, History, Literary Studies, Logopedics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Sciences, Social Work), three English-language and two Finnish-language master’s programmes, and one English-language bachelor’s programme.
We rethought the profiles of our English-language master’s programmes in 2021. The Master’s Degree Programme in Global Society was renamed Master’s Degree Programme in Social Science Research, and both the names and content of the specialisations that are available to students enrolled in the programme were reconsidered. Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research (PEACE), which was previously one of the available specialisations, became a separate master’s programme and the specialisation in Public Choice was renamed Public Policy Analysis. This means the number of our English-language degree programmes increased by one.
We offered 58 extra places to new students in our Finnish-language bachelor’s and master’s programmes. Before the increase, 357 places were available for new students in our Finnish-language bachelor’s and master’s programmes, which includes students who are offered admission through the Open University route or as transfer applicants. The total number of places in our Finnish-language and English-language master’s programmes was 189.
In 2021, the Covid-19 continued to affect teaching and learning, forcing teachers and students to operate in a primarily virtual environment and adapt to changing circumstances. We responded to the rise in virtual teaching by investing in the development of a hybrid teaching solutions, among other things.
We exceeded our target graduation rates in almost all our fields of study at the BSc and MSc levels. The share of graduates who complete their degree within the target time exceeded 50% of all our BSc and MSc graduates for the first time.
Work placements and courses were added to the curricula of different degree programmes. We placed a special emphasis on promoting the labour market relevance of our English-language programmes.
To support students’ well-being and bring support services within easy reach, our degree programmes took into use the student hub Navigaattori and the Student Compass online programme. Many of our degree-seeking students have also offered peer support to promote their fellow students’ academic progress within the framework of the TreSilienssi project, which is a joint undertaking between Tampere University, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and the student unions TREY and Tamko and is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
We have maintained close dialogue and collaboration with student associations. The faculty management has been meeting with the chairpersons of student associations on a monthly basis.
Societal impact
Our researchers and teachers are sought-after specialists in different development projects and law drafting related to, among other things, the development of social and health care services and the ongoing social security reform in Finland. They have also actively participated in societal discussion and debate on the status of families with children, demographic ageing, internal security and mental health and occupied key roles in different stages of related social policymaking.
Collaboration between the History, Philosophy and Literary Studies Unit and the Museum Centre Vapriikki has resulted in a number of popular exhibitions, such as Knights (2021) and Ostia, Gateway to Rome (2019–2021). Both exhibitions included a series of lectures. The Ostia exhibition is Vapriikki’s most visited exhibition of all time.
The Welfare Sciences Unit has especially promoted the societal impact of social work and psychology and enhanced teaching in logopedics within SOC. The INSOTE project studies the ongoing formation of an academic social and healthcare services centre as a part of Finland’s social and healthcare services reform in 2021–2022.
Together with the University of Eastern Finland and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), the Health Sciences Unit offered an online training programme in contact tracing to help contain the spread of Covid-19 infections. The Health Sciences Unit maintains close collaboration with FICAN MID and the Tays Cancer Centre in the study of cancer epidemiology and cancer care. Cancer care studies were carried out, among other things, to examine the impact of cancer on the life of patients and their family members and the life perceptions of patients receiving palliative care.
In our Social Research Unit, the ORSI research consortium funded by the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council collaborates with a broad range of local, national and international partners. As the municipal elections were held in Finland in 2021, a special emphasis was placed on developing strategic expertise in sustainable development in Finnish municipalities in cooperation with municipalities and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities and promoting the green transition in the Tampere region.
The Work Research Centre (WRC) has studied the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the development of industries that have been hit hard by the pandemic and participated in numerous research and development projects.
The Gerontology Research Center (GEREC) took part in the Year of Research-Based Knowledge in 2021 by organising a series of activities under the title Good news about ageing, which included a podcast on Radio Moreeni, participation in Researchers’ Night in September and blog posts. The researchers at GEREC have frequently appeared as expert commentators in the media and shared their research results on social media.
The web-based training programme developed during the Erase GVB project (Education and Raising Awareness in Schools to Prevent and Encounter Gender-Based Violence), which was available in six languages, was selected as one of the best actions for promoting equality in Finland in 2021. The VAX-TRUST project that studies vaccine hesitancy in Europe has received wide coverage in national media.
The Finnish Red Cross granted its 2021 Humanitarian Award to the ALL-YOUTH project that works together with associations to promote active citizenship among young people from the perspectives of responsive governance, the rule of law, digital innovation, sustainable development and bioeconomy.