Education

Teaching of geospatial data, methods and applications at the University of Turku ranges from basic undergraduate level courses (BSc, MSc) to specialized doctoral level courses (PhD) and professional coaching related to degree studies in general. We also educate future primary and secondary school teachers (MSc) with geospatial skills.

Geospatial education is a balanced combination of theoretical and practical teaching, with hands on skills training combined with scientific skills to model the world with geospatial data. Most of the geospatial teaching is using open data and open-source software, but we also provide specialized training using proprietary software, teach students to collect location-based data in the field and search data sets via different repositories and archival sources.

Undergraduate courses are provided mainly by the Geography Section at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and they introduce students broadly into the themes of geospatial data, methods and applications in today’s society. Courses at the BSc level give students basic scientific and practical knowledge of digital data sources, geospatial data management, analyses and visualization.

While basic-level teaching focuses on securing students’ technical and methodological skills, at the advanced level, students deepen their theoretical and conceptual skills, and focus on specific geospatial applications in the society, usually within their own subject field studies. Multidisciplinary problem-based learning is applied in various innovation and team work -based courses, which gather students from different disciplines to solve location-related problems in the society. Increasingly we link innovation and business education to real-world geospatial data and problems through capstone projects, Mapathons, Hackathlons and a like. Here, we build strong linkages of education to the needs of the society at large and possible employers of the graduates.

Through personal coaching and well-planned implementation of the curricula, we encourage students to build themselves strong but also individualistic geospatial expertise profiles, which address current needs in the society and seek innovative research solutions for the future.

We are happy to answer questions related to teaching and give advice of how to include geospatial skills into your study plan.