The University of Helsinki’s Master’s Programme in English Studies is a degree that teaches you to work with the English language in a variety of ways, depending on your own academic interests, whether that be literary close-reading analysis, linguistic fieldwork, corpus-based approaches, or whatever other niche you find yourself drawn to. Even better, the programme allows you to mix and match these topics into an academic specialization of your own!
What are the best aspects of this programme?
As might be obvious from my previous answer, I love the course topics available at the University of Helsinki. They drew me to the programme in the first place, and I was very happy to find that there were even more topics in the curriculum than what I had found online. In addition, I’m very glad that the programme occasionally presents students with the opportunity to do actual work in their field of study. That can be a traineeship at the faculty, but it can also be full or partial participation in a linguistic or literary research project; including, if you’re lucky, the appearance of your name in an academic publication.
What is your study area in this programme?
My major in the programme was linguistics. I enjoy working with the English language in all its forms and combining linguistic methods with methods from other fields, but, for my master’s thesis specifically, I chose to research the attitudes present towards Ukraine in the British news in the year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The thesis allowed me to synthesize corpus methods with a more qualitative appraisal analysis, and, thanks to the seriously valuable help from my thesis supervisor, I managed to hand in a thesis I am very proud of.
What kind of courses do you have? (Also what kind of classes and teaching methods do you have?)
I started my degree in 2021, meaning that, due to COVID-19, my first semester of courses was mostly online. After that, I had lots of in-person sessions that would usually open with the teacher’s instructions on a certain topic and would then provide space for the students to try using the material in practice, either in groups or individually, depending on the task at hand. I also had some MOOC courses on programming for linguists. These had a similar set-up to the in-person classes but were entirely online, with pre-recorded sessions rather than live lectures.
In addition to my classes on different topics and methods within linguistics (e.g., fieldwork methods; corpus linguistics; language of science), the set-up of the programme also gave me the space to complete a minor in Finnish language for non-native speakers and to attend classes in other fields than linguistics. In my case, I did some courses on literature and programming that I felt would complement my major. This freedom does require students to take some responsibility in their course choices, but you get a programme tailored to your own interests and aspirations in return!
Why should someone apply for this programme and what kind of employment opportunities do graduates have?
As an international student (being from the Netherlands originally) who came to Finland to do this degree, I feel like I am especially addressing other interested international students here in saying that the University of Helsinki’s English Studies programme is a great choice for aspiring master’s students who want to specialize in the English language, even if you’re not exactly sure yet in which direction that would be. Do note that the winters get a little cold here, though.
As for graduate opportunities, I would say there are plenty! Whether you start working part-time during the degree and ‘build’ a full-time career from there on out, or go on a job hunt right after graduation, there is a lot you can do with an English degree (despite what people tend to say). Communications, copywriting, editing and marketing are some routes to take for the more creative and writing-driven graduates, but there are also jobs in linguistic fieldwork, in the business industry, and in the classroom, both from teaching and analysis angles.
Of course, if you have academic ambitions, you can always apply to do a PhD afterwards! I never used the career services myself but was hired at an ad tech company right after graduation to work as a Dutch and English language linguist in Helsinki. In my job, I help develop an ontology used by a machine to analyze media content for certain concepts and categories within language. I promise you, I had no idea a job like this existed a few months ago, and I’m just as keen as you probably are to find out what other secret linguistic professions are out there.