Liberal Arts in Humanities
Are you interested in humanities, languages, culture, literature, history, anthropology, environment but cannot choose between these exciting disciplines? Then the programme of Liberal Arts in Humanities is just for you, allowing you to study all these together!
We invite students whose interests are not limited to one of the traditional discipline in humanities, but who are interested in combining several disciplines within our study programme.
You can choose from anthropology, English studies, Estonian studies, Asian studies, history, Russian language and culture (advanced), Russian language and culture (beginners), environmental humanities and cultural analysis.
Good English skills are required, and curiosity, openness to different ways of thinking and desire to find out things for oneself make the experience with us even more worthwhile.
Why study with us?
- The language of our programme is English, making it unique among other Liberal Arts programmes in the nearby region.
- In 2020 our Liberal Arts in Humanities was the second most popular BA programme among the foreign candidates wishing to pursue their undergraduate studies at Tallinn University.
- School of Humanities has excellent competences for making our Liberal Arts programme into an attractive study programme.
- The school has competent teaching staff with expertise in the classical humanities disciplines, such as history, literature, culture, modern languages, etc.
- Our Liberal Arts develops such essential skills as research and critical thinking. It permits to enhance these skills by combining various courses to get diverse views of poignant topics. We promote independent thinking, teamwork and tolerance.
- An excellent Erasmus network permits students to enrich their degree by studying or doing traineeship abroad.
- An ample amount of free electives permits students to create added value to their degree.
- Estonia is the home for many nations. Listen to the podcasts in Found in Estonia.
Course Outline
Full-time studies
- During the 3-year programme you are expected to participate in a number of compulsory and elective courses.
- The studies are organised so that you will be studying closely together with other Tallinn University students, including Erasmus students. This should promote good exchange of ideas.
- You are permitted to take courses from the other Schools of Tallinn University.
- The studies end with a bachelor examination.
Core course components
As a student you will have to pass university-wide courses (Introduction to the Humanities, Critical Thinking) that are taught to all our BA students at Tallinn University.
In addition, you work through a major project course ELU, which is devoted to solving a particular problem in an interdisciplinary team. It employs the method of problem-based learning and develops team-work and problem-solving skills that are essential in the present day job market.
There are courses that help to deepen the understanding of the Humanities, and you will have to engage in practical activities and do an internship.
You will improve your language skills and acquire at least a modest level of Estonian language.
From the second year of studies, you will choose two modules to specialise in, out of the following:
Literary and Cultural Studies of English-Speaking Countries | |
Russian Language and Culture (advanced) | Russian Language and Culture (beginners) |
Environmental Humanities |
Two modules of your choice must be completed in full. In addition, you may choose individual subjects from all the other modules as free electives.
Open electives enable you to develop unique and meaningful entities of your own.
Take a look how your courses will be distributed over your three year study period (sample). Clicking on the individual course title will open the short course description.
Study Support Facilities
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The university campus houses a study library, the main university library is situated within an easy reach in the city centre. The National Library of Estonia is also in the city centre. Numerous electronic databases are available through the libraries. - There are ample opportunities for Erasmus exchange.
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Students will have ample opportunities to participate at various literary and cultural events held in Tallinn. Tallinn University Student Union and International Club offer opportunities for getting engaged in diverse activities.
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Career and Psychological counselling services are available on-site.
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Opportunities for sports and cultural activities.
- Funding information: Study in Estonia.
Academic Staff
Ksenia Shmydkaya is a Lecturer of Slavic and Russian studies. She received her PhD from Tallinn University's School in Humanities in 2022. She is currently working on her first monograph exploring the philosophical foundations and political resonance of women-authored historical fiction in interwar Europe. Among her scholarly interests are women's writing, gender history and history of knowledge in Eastern Europe, epistolarity, historical representation, and the French Revolution. Since 2019, she has been teaching seminars on literature, cultural theory, history, and basic academic skills.
Julia Kuznetski (Tofantšuk) is the Professor of English and the head of the Liberal Arts in Humanities programme. She has taught courses on literature and literary theory (World Literature, British Literature from the Renaissance to the Present, 20th-21st-century British Literature, British Women Writers of the 20th-21st Century, 19th-century British Literature, 19th-century British Art, British and American Art in the 20th-21st Century, etc.), as well as practical English (English C2, Analysis of Academic Texts, Contemporary English, etc.), at BA, MA and PhD level. She has contributed to study programme development on all academic levels and is a member of several professional organisations (ESSE, FINSSE, MLA, ASLE, KAJAK, ENUT) and Advisory Board member of Lexington Books Ecocritical Theory and Practice series.
Julia Kuznetski’s PhD thesis (2007) was on construction of identity in the fiction of contemporary British women writers, for example, Eva Figes, Jeanette Winterson and Meera Syal. She has published articles, book chapters (Routledge, Peter Lang WV, Palgrave Macmillan) and delivered conference papers on gender and identity, transnational feminism, postcolonial and diaspora studies, ecocriticism and ecofeminism, which are her main research interests.
Piret Viires is the Professor of Estonian Literature and Literary Theory at Tallinn University. She received her doctorate on Estonian Literature in 2006 from Tartu University. She has published books on Estonian Literature and postmodernism. The most recently published is Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture (2012, Peter Lang Verlag). In addition she has published many articles, edited scholarly publications, organised conferences. She is a member of various scholarly organisations and editing boards. Her teaching assignments and research has taken her to University of Turku (Finland), Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary), Ohio State University (USA). Piret Viires is a member of the board of the Estonian Writers' Union and has published fiction.
Main research interests: Modern Estonian Literature, postmodernism and post-postmodernism, relationships between literature and technology, digital literature.
Kristo Nurmis is a historian and a research fellow at the Tallinn University School of Humanities. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in the field of Russian and Eastern European History (2022). Kristo is currently working on a book project exploring the politics of legitimacy and mass influence in the Soviet and Nazi occupied Baltic States from 1939-53.
Lisa Indraccolo is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at Tallinn University. She earned her Ph.D. from Ca’ Foscari University in 2010 with a thesis on the early Chinese “sophistic” text Gongsun Longzi. She gained several years of research experience as a postdoc fellow at the University of Zurich, where she carried out an independent research project on argumentation and persuasion in early Chinese philosophical texts (2011–2016). She then collaborated with Wolfgang Behr on the research project “A Tangled Web of Sayings – Structural and phonological patterning in the Hanfeizi” (2016–2020), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. In Zurich, she was also an active member of the interdisciplinary cluster University Research Priority Program “Asia and Europe” (2011–2014). Her research aims at providing a bridge between philosophy and philology, and focuses on Classical Chinese thought, literature, and culture in pre-imperial and early imperial China (Warring States and Han).
Airi Uuna is a Junior Research Fellow in the field of History at Tallinn University. After graduating with a degree in Art History, Museology and Heritage Protection from Tartu University, she then continued her academic path in East European Studies at Free University of Berlin. She later returned to Berlin in order to conduct research at the Humboldt-University for her PhD thesis. Her doctoral dissertation is centered on the inner workings of the Soviet advertising industry. Thereby, she is focusing on the case study of a Soviet-Estonian bureau which produced advertising films for the whole Soviet Union.
Main research interests: contemporary history with special focus on the Soviet Union, history of marketing, commercial advertising and consumerism, organizational and business history, transitional societies and oral history.
Mari Uusküla poseesses a MA and PhD degrees from University of Tartu and has also studied at the Eötvös Lorand University Budapest, Hungary and at Universita degli studi di Firenze, Italy. Her research interests include linguistics, lexical semantics, semantic typology, color naming, categorization and perception, field linguistics, and psycholinguistics. She has published research articles on color semantics and categorization in a range of European languages including Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Finnish, Czech and others. She teaches psycholinguistics, anthropological linguistics, semantics and pragmatics at Tallinn University. She supervises at BA, MA and PhD levels. She has also lectured in a number of European Universities in Roskilde, Verona, Milano, Budapest and others.
Joonas Plaan is a Lecturer of Anthropology. Currently, he is writing his PhD dissertation, studying how climate change affects inshore fisheries in Newfoundland, Canada. Joonas has done fieldwork among the fishing communities and climate activists. Joonas also works at Estonian Fund for Nature as Sustainable Fisheries Expert. Most importantly, Joonas sees himself as an environmental anthropologist, trying to understand human-environment interaction.
Research interests and areas: human-environment interactions, including environmental anthropology, political ecology, environmental history, landscape studies, environmentalism, fisheries, Baltic Sea and North-Atlantic fishing communities.
- Read more about his research
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Listen to his CreativeMornings talk The power of water around us.
Carlo Cubero is the coordinator of the in Audiovisual Ethnography track in Social Anthropology.
One strand of my research focuses on developing audiovisual methods for anthropological research. I have produced and directed various documentaries and sound-works. I have also curated ethnographic film programmes and ethnographic sound programmes at academic conferences and public events in Europe and the Caribbean.
Another strand of my research is concerned with the complexities of Caribbean island life. My book "Caribbean Island Movements: Culebra's Trans-insularities" (Rowman and Littlefield 2017) introduces the concept of "transinsularism" as a means to engage productively with the contradictions of Caribbean island identities. The monograph is based on a long term relationship with the island of Culebra, located in the north-eastern Caribbean.
https://tallinn.academia.edu/CarloCubero
Miriam Anne McIlfatrick-Ksenofontov has an MA in Romance Studies and Translation Studies and a PhD in Studies of Culture (Tallinn University, 2021). Her PhD thesis researched the poetics of translation in order to describe and conceptualise an approach to translating poetry that locates both poet’s and translator’s processes on the same continuum of creative activity. Her scholarly interests fall within the field of cultural studies, spanning English-language literatures, translation theory and practice, poetry and oral poetics, cognitive literary studies, and theories of creativity. Her teaching experience includes Literary Analysis, Comparative Poetry, Irish Literature and Culture, and Academic Writing. She has trained literary translators (for the Estonian Literature Centre) and Cambridge Assessment speaking examiners. She translates Estonian poetry for publication and performance. She is a member of the Estonian Writers' Union and the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature.
Ulrike Plath is the Professor of German History and Culture in the Baltic Region – a professorship that was launched in 2012 by German State financing to ensure sustainable research on German heritage in the Baltics in the 21st century. Ulrike has Baltic German roots, she studied in Hamburg, Tartu and Greifswald and received her PhD from Mainz University. She has mainly dealt with 18th and 19th century studies, the history of Baltic German culture and literature, and, more recently, with environmental history looking at history from a transnational perspective.
Her recent research and teaching covers topics that bring local and global phenomena together – as for example in the Baltic German food history, Baltic climate and agrarian history, transnational and social history of the region.
Jelena Raudla graduated from the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute as a teacher of Russian language and literature with an additional specialty in pedagogy. Her academical activities at the university began in 1981. She defended her doctoral degree (PhD) at the Moscow Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Her main research interests are Russian as a foreign language, Russian language teaching methodology and subject-specific Russian. She has experience in teaching Russian in general and subject-specific language at university and for general public, level learning in all forms and levels (European Language level A1-C1). She speaks foreign languages, teaches foreign students and translates books. Jelena Raudla has special and methodological publications, has written 9 textbooks, participated at international conferences and belongs to professional organizations. She has organized and conducted training courses and participated in international projects.
Admission Requirements
Application Procedure and Required Documents
In order to apply for admission, the applicant must submit the following documents:
- Application;
- Letter of Motivation;
- Proof of English Proficiency;
- Secondary School Certificate.
Please find further information here.
The admission exam consists of a written and oral part. The written part is based on the Letter of Motivation that is uploaded in PDF format into the application database. The first round of selection is made on the basis of Letter of Motivation and the submitted application (incl. candidate’s CV and qualifications). Successful applicants are invited to an interview. The oral part is an interview, during which the candidate's ability to justify the choice of the programme and interest in the Humanities are assessed. One part of the interview is the discussion of academic texts which the candidate must read prior to the interview. The exact time of the interview will be sent to the candidate via e-mail and it is conducted either at Tallinn University or via Skype or Zoom.
English Proficiency Requirements
Accepted proof of proficiency, for example: IELTS; TOEFL; PTE academic
More information about language proficiency requirements is available here.
Language test for EU/EEA citizens can also be carried out at Tallinn University.
NB! Students coming from Finland, Latvia and Lithuania and holders of International Baccalaureate have exceptions which you can check from the link above.
Letter of Motivation
Letter of Motivation (ca 500 words, to be uploaded in PDF format) must be added to your application. The letter must cover the following aspects:
- Why you have chosen to apply for Tallinn University Liberal Arts in Humanities programme;
- Explain in your own words what the Humanities are and why you are interested in them;
- What study areas within the Liberal Arts of Humanities programme you are interested in and why;
- How you are going to benefit from your degree after graduation.
Interview
The interview is conducted based on the candidate’s Letter of Motivation and compulsory reading. The texts for compulsory reading and discussion can be found here.
The candidate must choose two academic texts to read through in full, think of their meaning, why they are important texts in the particular area, how they represent important aspects of culture, history, anthropology, or literature; what important issues they raise and what is your opinion of these issues; have you read something similar before, how are they connected to your areas of interest, etc.
For the purposes of identity verification at the admission procedure the Admission Committee has the right to record the oral part of the admission exam carried out via video bridge.
Assessment of the candidates
1. Letter of Motivation: 30 points (min. requirement 20 points)
2. Discussion and Interview: 70 points (min. requirement 45 points), consisting of the general interview component 30 points (min. requirement 20 points) and discussion of the texts 40 points (min. requirement 25 points).
Important! Only applicants receiving minimum of 20 points for the first round (letter of motivation) will be invited for an interview.
Delaying your interview
If the date and time offered for an online interview does not suit the applicant it may be possible to delay the interview until the next interview date which is usually in the next month.
What we assess
Letter of Motivation: ability to justify the choice of the university and the programme, interest in the Humanities and in particular modules of the study programme, and ability to comprehend future prospects.
Interview
General interview: ability to justify the choice of the university and the programme, interest in the Humanities and in particular modules of the study programme, general erudition and ability to comprehend future prospects.
Discussion of academic texts: ability to understand the meaning and main ideas of the texts read for the interview, ability to relate the texts to the study area and explain how they relate to culture, history, anthropology, literature, etc., ability to discuss the issues in the texts and express one’s own opinion, ability to relate the texts to one’s own fields of interest and to other texts (books, articles) the candidate has read previously.
How we assess
The examination board will assess each candidate individually based on the criteria. For the written part, each board member will assess the candidates based on the submitted documents and enter the points into a table that calculates the average of the candiate. Based on the average, the candidate is invited / not invited for the interview. Only applicants who received the minimum of 20 points for the written part will be invited for an interview. One of the participating board members will be leading the interview, all members may ask questions. After each interview there is a discussion among the board members but points are still entered individually into the table which calculates the average of the points given and the final subtotal points.
Find more information about the deadlines here.
Additional points for volunteer work
Candidates who have work experience as volunteers may receive up to 4 additional points for their activities.
The candidate should add to the application a short description stating the name of the organization, the period of work as a volunteer, how many hours in total, and describe the tasks and duties carried out. A letter of confirmation from the organisation should be uploaded into the application database.
NB! The admission board has the right to decide, whether the candidate will get these additional points and how many points will be given.
Meet Some of Our Alumni
When the choice lay between continuing my education in a familiar field or exploring a new interest, the Liberal Arts in Humanities program at TLÜ allowed me to do both, helping me make an informed decision.
To build on my previous education in the humanities, I chose the English Studies module, which offered courses in British and American literature, as well as extensive practice in literary analysis and academic writing. Meanwhile, Anthropology came as a personal choice, driven by new emerging interests in social sciences. Thanks to the well-structured curriculum and a balance of lectures, seminars, and independent work, I engaged with both disciplines in an academic and research context. By my second year, I was confident about Anthropology as the focus of my BA thesis whereas English Studies courses provided crucial practice in writing and cultural theory; skills that are indispensable in anthropological work. As a result of exploring two distinct modules during my BA studies, I graduated with a clear direction for my future education: Anthropology. Confident in my choice, I applied to four Anthropology MA programs in Germany (Leipzig, Cologne, Bayreuth and Münster), was soon accepted into all of them, and ultimately chose the one that best aligned with my academic goals: Leipzig University.
This experience shows that a Liberal Arts in Humanities program, with its flexibility and diverse range of courses, can provide a strong foundation even for specialised academic careers. What matters today is not the number of hours spent on a singular subject but the ability to think holistically and see beyond the boundaries between the disciplines.
To me, studying Liberal Arts in Humanities somehow resembles learning to walk. A single road takes you on an enlightening journey through several epochs, disciplines, and dimensions. At first, the ground might seem to be obscure and unstable. Yet, every step shapes the road to the way that you start feeling more balanced and confident while standing on your own two feet. At some point, you realise that you no longer hesitantly watch your step but raise your eyes towards the everlasting scenery of expanding horizons. After all, you admit that learning to walk was more than useful knowledge or a memorable experience. Studying Liberal Arts in Humanities means finding your way in life, exploring and discovering, entering society, and leaving your footprints wherever you go.
Looking back at my own road taken, I find myself to be much more self-aware as well as optimistic about the future than before. I was starting my journey as a disoriented immigrant from Ukraine, who was facing multiple crossroads of various subjects of interest with confusion. Liberal Arts in Humanities program revealed to me a chance to dive in and synthesize everything that mattered to me with no limitations. Specialising in Asian Studies along with the Anglophone Module, I learned how to draw connections, depart from the transnational diversity of perspectives, and arrive at practical conclusions. Following the program of both modules, I sensed how useful and significant its content was for succeeding in personal, vocational and academic experiences inside and outside the university.
Thanks to this program, I could embrace a wide range of brilliant opportunities: performing as TLU Content Creator, Communications Manager of ESN TLU IC, media group leader for the “Students with Ukraine”' charity organisation, buddy for international students, participant of various international online courses, tutor in KNU International Writing Center, intern in Tallinn King Sejong Institute and Daegu Opera House, exchange student, and so on. I believe there is still a long way to go in order to reach the particular horizon I am heading to by bringing the first Korean Studies program to Estonia. No matter how it goes, studying Liberal Arts in Humanities at Tallinn University has taught me to walk with my head up. Finally, putting yourself in the humanities major student’s shoes is most likely to show you which road is meant for you to be taken.
One of the main reasons why I decided to join this program was its promised freedom of choice regarding what to study. I was interested in this promise since – like many people after graduating from school – I wasn’t entirely sure as to what to study, and I did not want to commit myself to a program that I did not truly enjoy. So, did the program fulfill this promise? And, how well?
In short, I was pleasantly surprised by how much freedom I was given with regards to what courses I could pick. I was not restricted to courses only from my two selected modules nor only to humanities.
The longer answer is that I loved the program. I went in with the idea that I would spend the next three years studying History and Anthropology. However, early on I realized that Anthropology wasn’t really my thing. So, did I have to drop out and change programs? No. Since it happened in my first year – which should be used to explore the different modules – I was able to select a different module for my second year. On top of that, I had the freedom to choose courses outside of the modules listed above. For example, I took part in courses related to state formation and international relations. Among these courses was a summer school on War and Diplomacy at King’s College London. While the contents of the summer school sound alien to a Liberal Arts in Humanities program at first sight, I found myself using a lot of what I had learnt in Tallinn for my presentation and paper there. In short, the paper was on how John Mearsheimer’s explanation for the war in Ukraine was incorrect as it ignored the role that historical memory played on the expansion of NATO into the former soviet states – among other things –.
Overall, the three years that I spent studying Liberal Arts were well worth it. It has provided me with a wide range of knowledge and skills that have helped me academically, especially to take the next step into a Master’s Degree in Early Modern History at King’s College London, but also as a person. The people I met in Tallinn, both students and professors, became great friends and mentors.
I am originally from Japan, and Liberal Arts education is gaining popularity in my country as a means of developing a wholistic, wise person through a college education. In my case, I had a four-year gap after graduating from high school, and I was traveling around Asia and other countries as a backpacker with a big heart who wanted to learn about humanity in English.
I recall searching all of the universities that offer Liberal Arts education in English within my budget, and thankfully I came across Liberal Arts in Humanities at Tallinn University, and as an overview, I am satisfied with its comprehensive and flexible curriculum, which has definitely increased my intellectual curiosity further in various subjects such as Anthropology, Chinese Politics, Estonian Studies, Digital Literacy, and so on. This gave me an idea of what study I want to pursue as a master's degree after my academic journey.
Furthermore, the course was specifically designed to encourage students to think and interact with their peers through group work, discussions, presentations, and a sufficient number of writing assignments in an open environment, allowing students to be confident in teamwork, self-thinking, and self-expression, all of which are frequently required in real-life situations. Besides that, the course is made up of international students from all over the world, which brings me very different perspectives on how we think and behave and makes us more cosmopolitan citizens who can make the world a better place through mutual understanding.
The program also encourages Erasmus study/internships, in which students can study abroad with a partner university using funds from Estonia and the European Union, which allowed me to study in Istanbul, Turkey, and explore not only the West but also the Middle East.
As a result, I can confidently state that the bachelor's degree in liberal arts in the humanities is best suited for someone who wants to explore a wide range of subjects while developing future-relevant skills before deciding on a master's degree, as well as the opportunity to study in Europe and further the opportunity through an Erasmus exchange study or internship from this course.
After graduating high school, I would say that I had only one way of thinking. It felt like a straight line - I could only see the start and the finish. However, the first few weeks of being a Liberal Arts student showed me that it shouldn't be so. For me, the past three years opened a multiverse of new ways of thinking, digesting information, and looking at the world from all the possible perspectives it had hidden within.
Even though the curriculum has a built-in set of courses that one ought to take, one can still get enlightened from all the other elective courses that the program and the university offer. Speaking about my experience, not only did I major in Anthropology and English Studies, but I also managed to participate in classes connected to linguistics, politics, psychology, and many other subjects. Moreover, I got a chance to study a foreign language of my choice, which was German; and I am beyond grateful for this possibility. After the completion of the program, I decided that I would like to challenge myself a bit more and applied for MA at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden. Thanks to my Liberal Arts background, I got into a program connected to studying programming and linguistics simultaneously, which I consider a win-win for me!
The Liberal Arts program is the best fit for those who would like to learn how to think outside of the box, gather information from all the possible sources, and analyse it from various perspectives that academia has to offer. Nonetheless, if you are interested in languages, culture, literature or anthropology and don't know how to fit all of that in one program, you should definitely consider this program!
Life is a never ending quest of self-discovery. Sometimes, we would find ourselves in moments where we need to make big decisions and we don't really end up where we expected to be. And moving to Estonia to study Liberal Arts in Humanities in Tallinn University is one of my greatest life changing decisions.
After going through a career change, the programme has helped me transition to a new path and provided me with the opportunity to discover my passion for cultural analysis, English literature and Anthropology. At the same time, the curriculum has opened my eyes to various topical issues that are important and relevant to discuss. And the good thing about the programme, it encouraged me to think outside the box, view things from different perspectives, and made me understand the value of practical knowledge. In fact, the programme has helped me hone my skills in creative writing and storytelling. This led me to my passion project of creating video contents in the form of vlogs. Through this, I am able to share my stories, personal struggles and experiences as a foreign student. My goal is to inspire and to motivate aspiring international students who want to study in Tallinn, Estonia. And also, to provide some helpful tips and insights that could help them with their journey. See for yourself!
The only constant thing in life is change and these changes are inevitable. It's never easy, but we always need to look at these moments as an opportunity for growth and learning. With that, I am glad to have taken this leap and I'm grateful that Tallinn University was there to guide me through this path.
On the third year of our studies, my course mates and I would sometimes gather and reminiscent about the past experiences that we had at the university. The recurrent topic of our conversations was how confused we were, compared to now, at our first classes because we were just entering the field of our studies. Looking back at it, we could recognise an astonishing growth in our knowledge and skills, and the expansion of our horizons. Liberal education aims at providing one with tools and background to be analytical of the world around. It is a wide field, which offers all imaginable dimensions in order to transform one into a well-rounded person.
Graduating high school, I had no clear idea what I want to study and what I want my life to look like in the future. After browsing through various options, this programme attracted me with the freedom of choice it was giving me: not only I could choose my specialisation from 7 different modules but I was also free in the selection of my electives. I made full use of that: my main modules – Asian studies and Anthropology – complimented each other and my electives helped me to develop other skills like photography or team management. However, fieldwork for my final research paper had been a truly revelatory experience for me. All the knowledge I gained through the lectures and books was fuelling my performance as an anthropologist. I have become confident to be curious, to knock at the seemingly closed doors, to ask questions from strangers, to navigate through complex relations an anthropologist develops with one’s participants, and to think of the world holistically. I am now studying Anthropology here at Tallinn University.
What does it mean to study Liberal Arts? It means freedom and dynamics, possibilities and support. I recommend this course to everybody!
Read about his experience here.
I came out of high school with a broad interest in art, literature, languages, social structures, and consistent ways and tools to make sense of our lives as humans. I also wanted to try studying somewhere outside of Russia where I am from. After considering different higher education options, I have chosen the Liberal Arts in Humanities program.
The subjects I majored in were Philosophy and Anthropology. In addition to that, I was able to satisfy my curiosity by taking open elective courses in other disciplines like Psychology, Literary studies, and Linguistics. The program also offered a series of seminars on research methods that are used in Humanities and Social Sciences. Within the framework of these seminars, I was given an opportunity to carefully plan and conduct several pieces of pilot research of my own. It was especially these practical and creative exercises that made me realize that I would like to continue learning and conducting more immersive research on a Master's level.
During my second year of studies, I made use of the Erasmus+ exchange program and have spent one year at Würzburg University. I came there without knowing a single word in German and left with the upper-intermediate level of the language, as well as some experience of local academic approach and traditions.
I think that at this stage in life it was very important for me to be able to try my strength at different disciplines and get a glimpse of what academic and everyday life is like further away from home in Germany. After I graduated at the beginning of 2020 I felt ready to make a well-informed choice regarding what I want to study more in-depth on the Master's level as well as where is the place I would like to do it the most. I am now studying Audiovisual Anthropology here at Tallinn University.
I chose to study in the Liberal Arts programme because it offered a wider range of options and opportunities than regular study programmes. My studies never got boring because there was so much diversity in the courses I have taken. Liberal Arts has provided me with a great platform for future master's degree studies; I was not limited to one subject field but I had multiple choices. Tallinn University is a great university to do these studies because of the easy application process and variety of the studies. Getting to know Tallinn, Estonia, and Estonian culture while studying here has been one of the most rewarding part of my studies.
I was an Erasmus exchange student in the Netherlands for the autumn semester of 2016.
An advantage of doing a bachelor degree in Liberal Arts is the possibility to combine different disciplines in one study programme. I have already a degree in the technical field, but always had a general interest in Humanities as well. The Liberal Arts programme at Tallinn University provides a good opportunity to get an overview of the field and develop a basic understanding of a wide variety of academic disciplines and acquire necessary skills for further studies. Different modules offer a scope to discover new interests and explore them deeper.
However, such a versatile and flexible curriculum brings also some frustration into your life. During my studies here, I had always trouble explaining to my friends that at the end I won’t have a diploma, which endows a particular profession. Liberal Arts means freedom; it is a good start that helps you to find your way and decide about further specialisation. In my case, majoring in Philosophy and Anthropology led me to the field of Cultures of Knowledge and Technology, which brought together my current studies with my previous experience. Nevertheless, it’s quite flexible to make me eligible to apply for almost any master's programme.
Studying in English means that you encounter many international students and have a lot of friends from different countries. You can also spend a semester or two abroad. I went on Erasmus exchange to the Netherlands (autumn 2016 and spring 2017), which benefited my studies by adding a unique cultural experience and courses I could never have at my home university.
When I made a decision to study Liberal Arts at Tallinn University, I didn't have a particular idea of what I wanted to become in the future. I have always been good at humanities and had a general interest in anthropology, so I decided that this course would fit me nicely. My mother had obtained her first degree from Tallinn University back in the 80s, some of my friends had also studied here; thus I imagined that there must be a good level of higher education.
The course had, in fact, exceeded my expectations. I think that an interdisciplinary programme such as Liberal Arts is a good foundation when taken at BA level. It gives you versatile knowledge, and very soon you begin to see that all subjects are connected. Being able to choose your classes is a great chance to work with different professors and make the most of your degree. Moreover, Tallinn University gives you an opportunity to learn foreign languages (for me, it was French).
I am currently doing an MA in Material and Visual Culture at University College London. After obtaining my Master's degree, I plan to continue my studies at the doctoral level.
Postgraduate Destinations
Graduate career options
Graduates will be equipped to work in any area that requires excellent skills in core competences of a BA graduate. Our graduates will have a better interdisciplinary approach to the issues they will have to tackle.
The prospected career options include areas where independent working skills, a critical mind and teamwork skills are useful. Internship opportunities either during the studies or as a graduate will help to put acquired knowledge into daily use.
Further study opportunities
The graduates will be prepared to continue their studies at MA level, following one of the MA programmes offered by us, or anywhere in the world.
Sample tracks of our graduates
- Combining Art History and Visual Culture’s MA studies with being a Freelance Curator, an Art and Culture Critic, and a Guide at the KUMU Art Museum.
Contact Us!
- Specific questions regarding the programme should be directed to the School of Humanities:
Maris Peters
aDdressNarva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn
E-MAILmaris.peters@tlu.ee
- For additional guidelines regarding admission procedure please contact the international admission specialist.
E-MAILadmissions@tlu.ee
- For additional information regarding student life at Tallinn University please contact Student Ambassadors.
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