Institutes declared common interest in creating new units
On February 9th the common interest protocols were signed, serve as a basis for the creation of new institutes in Tallinn University, their study programmes and RDC-projects. The new units were formed based on their common parts in developing the new focus fields. The signing is an important milepost in the process of negotiations towards creating new academic units.
The Institute of Educational Sciences, the Pedagogical College and the Centre for Innovation in Education will form a new unit, which will develop the Educational Innovation focus field.
Baltic Film and Media School, Institute of Communication and the Institute of Fine Arts will lead the field of Digital and Media Culture. The latter will join with its departments of Choreography, Music and Art Education.
The Estonian Institute of Humanities, the Institute of Estonian Language and Culture, the Institute of Germanic and Romance Language and Cultures and Catherine’s College will jointly develop the field of Cultural Competences. The representatives of the Institute of History and the Institute of Slavonic Language and Cultures have also taken part in the negotiation process in this field, but their boards have not yet made an official decision to join.
The field of Healthy and sustainable Lifestyle will be developed by a unit comprised by the departments of Creative Arts Therapies and Craft from the Institute of Fine Arts, the department of Natural Sciences from the Institute of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Institute of Psychology, the Institute of Health Sciences and Sports as well as the Institute of Ecology.
A new unit to develop the field of Open Organisation of Governance and Society will join the Institute of Political Science and Governance, the Estonian Institute for Futures Studies, the Institute of Social Work, the Institute of International and Social Studies, TU Law School and Catherine's College. The representatives from the Estonian Institute for Population Studies were also present at the negotiations, but their board has not yet made a decision.
An additional unit will be created with the task of supporting the development of digital technologies and analytics across all the focus fields. This institute will be created by the merging of the Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Information Studies and the Department of Mathematics from the Institute of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
The basis of further operation of the new academic units is still under discussion. These and other questions will be discussed and answered in the process of developing the new statutes of the academic units as well as the Tallinn University Statute, which is planned to reach the Senate in March.