Institute Councils Agree on Merging

A large portion of Tallinn University institute councils has already made decisions to close down the existing institute and move into the new academic units. Among others, the decision was made by the Institutes of Estonian Language and Culture, Germanic and Romance Languages and Cultures, Psychology and Information Studies.

The Institute of Health Sciences and Sports has also agreed to merge. “Yes, we have reached a positive decision,” said the head of said unit, Kristjan Port. “We discussed the matter for an hour and a half with Ruth Shimmo, director of the Institute of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The only problem we had was gradually losing the concept and idea of sport as an independent part of human culture with the formation of the new institute.” At the same time, Port admitted this depends on their own promotion of the subject.

The council of the Institute of Ecology decided to close the institute and continue as a research centre, which is yet to get a name. The Institute of International and Social Studies will also continue as a research centre.

Based on these decisions, the Tallinn University Senate will confirm the new academic units on April 27^th. This will confirm the names, academic directions and centres within the new institutes. The names must have the term “research” or “science” in them. It is also essential that the name would not be too long and have a maximum of two components in it.

When translating the new names into English, the word “School” marks the new institute rather than the words “Faculty” or “Institute”, since “School” better represents the problem-based structure, which combines studies and research. This decision was made based on many international examples.

This week, the councils of the Estonian Institute of Humanities and the Institutes of Communication and Informatics will assemble and make their decisions. The council of Baltic Film- and Media School will gather on April 20^th. The subject has not yet been discussed in neither the Institute of History nor the Estonian Institute for Population Studies.

On February 9^th, most institutes stated their willingness to merge by signing the common interest protocols.