Developing education

In addition to the special projects aimed at finding new ways to facilitate learning, we work in close cooperation with the students and working life to improve the study programmes on the run. Online courses and live streaming are becoming a regular part of our courses thanks to recent student feedback. Our mission is to share knowledge and materials with the university network to increase the quality of Russian and Eastern European Studies nationwide.

Recent projects in teaching development:

BAMSE 2020 and 2021 are Nordplus funded projects that discuss and further develop interdisciplinary area studies methodology for addressing present-day multidimensional and transnational problems. The network will organize two intensive courses in Vilnius 2021 and in Tartu 2022. Both teachers and students are encouraged to experiment with new ways of teaching and learning.

DigiREES (2020-2021)

The project aims to develop teachers’ digital skills and to build a multidisciplinary online introduction course to Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European studies. The course will be designed so that in future it will serve all Finnish universities and life-long learning, and can serve as an introductions course for the high school students. The project involves approximately 50 researcher teachers and students. It is funded by the University of Helsinki .

(2015-2018)

The study module funded by the EC (Erasmus+) supports interdisciplinary learning and innovative teaching methods that ensure discursive learning across borders.

is a perennial project of the Council of Baltic States aimed at strengthening cooperation between students in the area. In 2017 The Aleksanteri Institute produced an intensive course about the history of the area for students in teacher training. The dialogical, multidisciplinary course took the students to Helsinki and Saint Petersburg. .

was a team lead by Aleksanteri Institute -based researcher-teacher Katalin Miklossy that invented new ways to overcome taboo subjects in higher education. The team created a method called that emphasises mutual respect and equal dialogue and is being used for example, to discuss populism with high-shcoolers.

was a project funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign affairs to share best practices in higher education in the Baltic Sea region and the Caucasus. The project involved an exchange of both students and teachers during 2012-2015, and helped to promote democratic policies and critical thinking in the member universities. In 2015, the project published a report on .

was a domestic project mapping the working life demand for expertise in Russian and East European Studies. It produced a great deal of useful material for the Finnish institutions of higher education while also providing students with a realistic picture of career opportunities.