Courses and study modules
The extent of the Master's Programme in Integrative Plant Sciences is 120 credits (ECTS), to be completed in two years of full-time studies. The degree consists of 80 ECTS of advanced studies and 40 ECTS of other elective studies from this or other programmes. The advanced studies consist of joint courses (20 ECTS), two alternative study modules (30 ECTS) and the Master's thesis (30 ECTS).

With your choices of courses, you can deepen your expertise in particular areas of integrative plant sciences. Your degree can thus be tailored depending on your aspirations, whether you want to be a university researcher, entrepreneur, or environmental/agricultural consultant. You can also pick individual courses from any module to your elective studies. However, each module is a coherent entity so we recommend taking all the courses in a module.

You can find the joint courses, the study modules and examples of other available courses presented below.
Joint stud­ies

Joint studies in the MSc Programme in Integrative Plant Sciences, 50 cr       

  • IPS-001 Personal Study Plan (PSP), 0 cr
  • IPS-002 Plants in a Changing World, 5 cr                    
  • IPS-003 Design and Planning of Biological Experiments, 5 cr
  • IPS-004 Master’s Thesis Seminar, 5 cr
  • IPS-005 Literature Examination, 5 cr
  • IPS-006 Master’s Thesis, 30 cr
  • VIIKB-001 Maturity Essay, 0 cr
Mod­ule in Plant Growth and De­vel­op­mental Bio­logy

Plant Growth and Developmental Biology, 15 cr

  • IPS-111 Plant Developmental Biology, 5 cr                                
  • IPS-112 Wood Structure, Growth and Differentiation, 5 cr 
  • IPS-113 Lectures in Plant Physiology, 5 cr
Mod­ules in Plant Biotechnology and Mo­lecu­lar Bio­logy

Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, 15 cr

  • IPS-121 Plant Biochemistry and Cell Biology, 5 cr
  • IPS-122 Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, 5 cr
  • IPS-123 Laboratory Course in Plant Biotechnology, 5 cr

Advanced Plant Molecular Biology, 15 cr

  • IPS-131 Advanced Course in Plant Molecular Biology, 15 cr
Mod­ules in Plants in Their Environment

Plants in Their Environment, 15 cr

  • IPS-142 Plant Adaptation, 5 cr
  • ECGS-601 Ecosystems and Climate Change, 5 cr
  • A 5 cr course agreed in the PSP

Subarctic Ecology and Flora, 15 cr

  • IPS-154 Subarctic Habitats and Biota, 5 cr
  • IPS-153 Flora of Subarctic Europe, 5 cr
  • A 5 cr course agreed in the PSP
Mod­ule in Plant Tax­onomy and Sys­tem­at­ics

Taxonomy and Systematics, 15 cr

  • IPS-161 Biological Collections, 5 cr
  • IPS-164 Introduction to Phylogenetics, 10 cr
Mod­ule in Plant Di­versity and Dis­tri­bu­tion

Diversity and Distribution of Plants and Fungi, 15 cr

Elective, 15 cr                                                                                                                                  

  • IPS-173 Mapping Plant Distributions, 5 cr           
  • IPS-174 Tropical Flora of East Africa, 5 cr
  • EEB-301 Fundamentals of Conservation Biology, 5 cr       
  • IPS-177 Flora of Southern Finland, 5 cr
  • IPS-178 Threatened Vascular Plants of Finland, 5 cr
Field courses

The Master's Programme in Integrative Plant Sciences offers some field courses that can be included in your studies:

The courses above are located at following research stations:

Read more about the Research stations at the University of Helsinki.

Some of the field courses can be accomplished remotely – be in touch with the responsible teacher to find out more.
Ca­reer ori­ent­a­tion and pro­fes­sional skills train­ing (ex­amples)

Career orientation and professional skills training (examples)

  • IPS-008 Advanced Training in a Research Group, 5-10 cr       
  • IPS-009 Practical Training, 5-10 cr       
  • IPS-010 Learning by Doing in Scientific Natural History Collections, 5 cr            
  • IPS-011 Project Work, 5 cr            
  • IPS-012 Plant Biology Journal Club, 5 cr           
  • IPS-013 Symposia and Seminars, 5 cr 
  • IPS-014 Learning by Teaching, 5 cr
  • VIIKB-002 Tutoring, 5 cr
  • VIIKB-005 Participation in Organization and Administrative Activities, 2-5 cr      
Other op­tional stud­ies (ex­amples)

Optional studies from student’s own programme or from other programmes

Examples:

Orientation, language courses, courses from other universities

  • VIIKB-003 Orientation Course, 1 cr
  • SUST-001 Sustainability Course (MOOC), 3 cr
  • PED590 Towards Better Well-Being and Studying, 3 cr           
  • KK-ENG501, Academic Writing 1: Principles and Practice (MSc Students) (CEFR C1), 2 cr          
  • KK-ENG502, Academic Writing 2: Process and Feedback (MSc Students) (CEFR C1), 2 cr           
  • VIIKB-200 Study Module Accomplished at Another University, 15-45 cr  
  • VIIKB-201 Study Module Completed in a Foreign University , 15-25 cr                                                                                                         

Courses or modules from closely-related MSc Programmes

  • MSc Programme in Agricultural Sciences
  • MSc Programme in Ecology and Evolution Biology
  • MSc Programme in Forest Sciences 
Courses offered to the ex­change stu­dents

The programme also welcomes exchange and visiting students.

Please find here the list of IPS courses 2022-2023 open for exchange students