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would require increased scholarships or an employment position that is directly related to the doctoral thesis. The doctoral students also expect a study programme to be diverse and include the courses and seminars important for the doctoral thesis. Constructive crit- icism and feedback, and discussion related to the field of the doc- toral thesis (with fellow students, members of teaching staff, foreign colleagues) are highly valuable for doctoral students, therefore, the more the doctoral student is daily connected to the university, the more successfully he or she completes the study programme and vice versa.
1.6 EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
In autumn 2014, the Ministry of Education and Research, in coop- eration with the Estonian Research Council, conducted a targeted evaluation of two research fields: information and communication technology and law. The quality of research, research environment, infrastructure and financing, organisation of doctoral studies and contribution to society were assessed during the evaluation. The purpose of targeted evaluation is to provide feedback on the level, effectiveness and influence of information and communication tech- nology and law to the researchers´ community, research and devel- opment establishments, organisations that are financing research and the people shaping research policy. The evaluation committees vis- ited Tallinn University in November and met with the management and research staff.
In the evaluation report proposal presented in February 2015, the committee evaluated the research quality of ICT as excellent, es- pecially in the research group of digital learning ecosystems, citing particularly the real interdisciplinary orientation and activeness of the research group. The research group of human-computer inter- action is relatively young and the committee recommended paying attention to focusing the research topics more in the future.
The preliminary version of the law evaluation report was also presented in February 2015. The committee stressed the need to strengthen the strategic approach and pursue greater consolidation and cooperation of universities in the field of law at Estonian univer- sities. Considering the small size of the Law School, the most impor- tant recommendation of the committee is the creation of a narrowly focused research strategy of law.
1.7 REWARDS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY
A number of TU members were awarded international, national and university recognition and received acknowledgements during 2014.
The following researchers from TU were awarded the Order of the White Star: Mare Pork, professor emeritus, Krista Kerge, professor of applied linguistics, and Marju Kõivupuu, a senior research fellow. Tiit Land, Rector of TU, was awarded a Badge of Merit by the city of Tallinn. Ellu Saar, professor of social stratification at the Institute of International and Social Studies, was awarded a National Research
Award in social sciences by the Republic of Estonia.
The Gustav Ernesaks Fund granted the scholarship of choir music
promoter to Indrek Vijard, promoter of male singing at the annual concert of the Estonian Choral Association. Sander Tamm, the young and active conductor, was awarded the prize of Organiser of the Year by the Estonian Choral Association for bringing Eric Whitacre, one of the most recognized composers of the world, to Estonia. Andres Avarand, a conductor of the TU brass orchestra, was awarded the David Otto Wirkhaus prize for his long-term and effective contribu- tion to Estonian brass band music. The TU Symphony Orchestra was awarded the annual prize of the Estonian Symphony Orchestras Asso- ciation. Linda Kardna, an associate professor emeritus and long-term conductor of the female choir, was recognized for her long-term work as a conductor and teacher and awarded the Arvo Ratassepp prize, which is a challenge prize for outstanding results in working with choirs or teaching conductors. The One Minute Lecture Series was awarded the special education prizes of the Best Marketing Act in Edu- cation 2014 and the Clear Message Award by the Institute of Estonian Language and the European Commission.
A total of 4 out of the 7 prizes at the national competition of edu- cational sciences were awarded to TU. The prize for the best Master´s thesis in educational sciences was awarded to Haana-Liis Kaarlõp- Nani, whose thesis treated the possibilities of overcoming memory conflicts through the teaching of history. The thesis was praised for its good solution of a current topic with practical output in combina- tion with the research method, adequate generalisation of the results and general good language use. The best popular sciences work is Rain Mikser´s work in compiling and editing a unified and authoritative Education Lexicon. The best doctoral thesis was Mart Laanepere´s
“Pedagogy-driven Design of Virtual Learning Environments”, which reflects a decade of the development work on learning environments in Tallinn University. The actuality of the topic is intertwined with the epistemological treatment, specific development survey logic and a refreshing digital platform discussion. The prize for the best research
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