The Swedish School of Social Science

• Very different kinds of activities in the area of social sciences.
• An active research institute.
• Fruitful combinations of professionalism and academic tradition.
• Interdisciplinary approaches to education and research.
• Excellent international contacts and networks.

These are some of the features of the Swedish School of Social Science at the University of Helsinki. Today the School is a research-oriented unit, with education in several fields of social science: Journalism, Social Work and Social Policy, Political Science, Social Psychology, Sociology and Legal Studies.

The history of the School dates back to 1943. In the middle of the Second World War, the School started its first academic year with the task to fulfil the need for well-educated administrative personnel for the Swedish and bilingual municipalities in Finland.

These early features of the Swedish School of Social Science can be said to have had an impact on the whole development of the School. Finland being a bilingual country, it is important that equal opportunities for education and for public service are offered to both language groups - the Finnish majority as well as the Swedish minority.

The Swedish School of Social Science is today the largest Swedish unit at the bilingual University of Helsinki, and is one of the units for higher education in the language of Swedish in Finland. Although the main tasks from its first days back in 1943 remain, the School has undergone enormous changes over the decades. In 1984 a crucial step was taken in the development of the School, when it became part of the University of Helsinki as an autonomous, Swedish unit. The connection to the university allowed the students of the School to continue their studies from the Bachelor level to a Master's degree, and higher degrees - a possibility that a growing number of the students take advantage of. The Bologna process, with its uniform degree structure based on the two-cycle model, will increase mobility not only on a national, but also on an international level. The Swedish School of Social Science, with its long experience of education aiming at two cycles, is well prepared to tune in with the Bologna process.

Originally, the School had a clear professional orientation. This is a feature that still remains important, especially within the Journalism and Social Work programmes. In addition, one of the hallmarks of the School, i.e. good contacts with local as well as regional authorities, with public sector organisations, NGOs and with the mass-media, are still of great importance. But today we find this professionalism in an interaction with research; we find new field contacts created through research projects, and we find traditional academic disciplines combined with interesting interdisciplinary approaches.

The position as an autonomous unit within the University of Helsinki gives the School the advantage of being part of the largest and most comprehensive university of Finland, but, at the same time, guarantees the right of the School to maintain its special features. The future of the Swedish School of Social Science lies in its ability to find a balance between autonomy and cooperation; a balance between the advantages of a compact, rather intimate unit, and the demands for broader approaches to research and education. With the prospect of moving into new facilities close to the Faculty of Social Sciences and in the neighbourhood of the main building of the university, there seems to be every possibility for the School to find a balance between its own traditions and the future challenges.

Henrik Hägglund, Rector