Liberal Arts in Humanities alumni stories
When the choice lay between continuing my education in a familiar field or exploring a new interest, the Liberal Arts in Humanities program at TLÜ allowed me to do both, helping me make an informed decision.
To build on my previous education in the humanities, I chose the English Studies module, which offered courses in British and American literature, as well as extensive practice in literary analysis and academic writing. Meanwhile, Anthropology came as a personal choice, driven by new emerging interests in social sciences. Thanks to the well-structured curriculum and a balance of lectures, seminars, and independent work, I engaged with both disciplines in an academic and research context. By my second year, I was confident about Anthropology as the focus of my BA thesis whereas English Studies courses provided crucial practice in writing and cultural theory; skills that are indispensable in anthropological work. As a result of exploring two distinct modules during my BA studies, I graduated with a clear direction for my future education: Anthropology. Confident in my choice, I applied to four Anthropology MA programs in Germany (Leipzig, Cologne, Bayreuth and Münster), was soon accepted into all of them, and ultimately chose the one that best aligned with my academic goals: Leipzig University.
This experience shows that a Liberal Arts in Humanities program, with its flexibility and diverse range of courses, can provide a strong foundation even for specialised academic careers. What matters today is not the number of hours spent on a singular subject but the ability to think holistically and see beyond the boundaries between the disciplines.
To me, studying Liberal Arts in Humanities somehow resembles learning to walk. A single road takes you on an enlightening journey through several epochs, disciplines, and dimensions. At first, the ground might seem to be obscure and unstable. Yet, every step shapes the road to the way that you start feeling more balanced and confident while standing on your own two feet. At some point, you realise that you no longer hesitantly watch your step but raise your eyes towards the everlasting scenery of expanding horizons. After all, you admit that learning to walk was more than useful knowledge or a memorable experience. Studying Liberal Arts in Humanities means finding your way in life, exploring and discovering, entering society, and leaving your footprints wherever you go.
Looking back at my own road taken, I find myself to be much more self-aware as well as optimistic about the future than before. I was starting my journey as a disoriented immigrant from Ukraine, who was facing multiple crossroads of various subjects of interest with confusion. Liberal Arts in Humanities program revealed to me a chance to dive in and synthesize everything that mattered to me with no limitations. Specialising in Asian Studies along with the Anglophone Module, I learned how to draw connections, depart from the transnational diversity of perspectives, and arrive at practical conclusions. Following the program of both modules, I sensed how useful and significant its content was for succeeding in personal, vocational and academic experiences inside and outside the university.
Thanks to this program, I could embrace a wide range of brilliant opportunities: performing as TLU Content Creator, Communications Manager of ESN TLU IC, media group leader for the “Students with Ukraine”' charity organisation, buddy for international students, participant of various international online courses, tutor in KNU International Writing Center, intern in Tallinn King Sejong Institute and Daegu Opera House, exchange student, and so on. I believe there is still a long way to go in order to reach the particular horizon I am heading to by bringing the first Korean Studies program to Estonia. No matter how it goes, studying Liberal Arts in Humanities at Tallinn University has taught me to walk with my head up. Finally, putting yourself in the humanities major student’s shoes is most likely to show you which road is meant for you to be taken.
One of the main reasons why I decided to join this program was its promised freedom of choice regarding what to study. I was interested in this promise since – like many people after graduating from school – I wasn’t entirely sure as to what to study, and I did not want to commit myself to a program that I did not truly enjoy. So, did the program fulfill this promise? And, how well?
In short, I was pleasantly surprised by how much freedom I was given with regards to what courses I could pick. I was not restricted to courses only from my two selected modules nor only to humanities.
The longer answer is that I loved the program. I went in with the idea that I would spend the next three years studying History and Anthropology. However, early on I realized that Anthropology wasn’t really my thing. So, did I have to drop out and change programs? No. Since it happened in my first year – which should be used to explore the different modules – I was able to select a different module for my second year. On top of that, I had the freedom to choose courses outside of the modules listed above. For example, I took part in courses related to state formation and international relations. Among these courses was a summer school on War and Diplomacy at King’s College London. While the contents of the summer school sound alien to a Liberal Arts in Humanities program at first sight, I found myself using a lot of what I had learnt in Tallinn for my presentation and paper there. In short, the paper was on how John Mearsheimer’s explanation for the war in Ukraine was incorrect as it ignored the role that historical memory played on the expansion of NATO into the former soviet states – among other things –.
Overall, the three years that I spent studying Liberal Arts were well worth it. It has provided me with a wide range of knowledge and skills that have helped me academically, especially to take the next step into a Master’s Degree in Early Modern History at King’s College London, but also as a person. The people I met in Tallinn, both students and professors, became great friends and mentors.
I am originally from Japan, and Liberal Arts education is gaining popularity in my country as a means of developing a wholistic, wise person through a college education. In my case, I had a four-year gap after graduating from high school, and I was traveling around Asia and other countries as a backpacker with a big heart who wanted to learn about humanity in English.
I recall searching all of the universities that offer Liberal Arts education in English within my budget, and thankfully I came across Liberal Arts in Humanities at Tallinn University, and as an overview, I am satisfied with its comprehensive and flexible curriculum, which has definitely increased my intellectual curiosity further in various subjects such as Anthropology, Chinese Politics, Estonian Studies, Digital Literacy, and so on. This gave me an idea of what study I want to pursue as a master's degree after my academic journey.
Furthermore, the course was specifically designed to encourage students to think and interact with their peers through group work, discussions, presentations, and a sufficient number of writing assignments in an open environment, allowing students to be confident in teamwork, self-thinking, and self-expression, all of which are frequently required in real-life situations. Besides that, the course is made up of international students from all over the world, which brings me very different perspectives on how we think and behave and makes us more cosmopolitan citizens who can make the world a better place through mutual understanding.
The program also encourages Erasmus study/internships, in which students can study abroad with a partner university using funds from Estonia and the European Union, which allowed me to study in Istanbul, Turkey, and explore not only the West but also the Middle East.
As a result, I can confidently state that the bachelor's degree in liberal arts in the humanities is best suited for someone who wants to explore a wide range of subjects while developing future-relevant skills before deciding on a master's degree, as well as the opportunity to study in Europe and further the opportunity through an Erasmus exchange study or internship from this course.
After graduating high school, I would say that I had only one way of thinking. It felt like a straight line - I could only see the start and the finish. However, the first few weeks of being a Liberal Arts student showed me that it shouldn't be so. For me, the past three years opened a multiverse of new ways of thinking, digesting information, and looking at the world from all the possible perspectives it had hidden within.
Even though the curriculum has a built-in set of courses that one ought to take, one can still get enlightened from all the other elective courses that the program and the university offer. Speaking about my experience, not only did I major in Anthropology and English Studies, but I also managed to participate in classes connected to linguistics, politics, psychology, and many other subjects. Moreover, I got a chance to study a foreign language of my choice, which was German; and I am beyond grateful for this possibility. After the completion of the program, I decided that I would like to challenge myself a bit more and applied for MA at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden. Thanks to my Liberal Arts background, I got into a program connected to studying programming and linguistics simultaneously, which I consider a win-win for me!
The Liberal Arts program is the best fit for those who would like to learn how to think outside of the box, gather information from all the possible sources, and analyse it from various perspectives that academia has to offer. Nonetheless, if you are interested in languages, culture, literature or anthropology and don't know how to fit all of that in one program, you should definitely consider this program!
Life is a never ending quest of self-discovery. Sometimes, we would find ourselves in moments where we need to make big decisions and we don't really end up where we expected to be. And moving to Estonia to study Liberal Arts in Humanities in Tallinn University is one of my greatest life changing decisions.
After going through a career change, the programme has helped me transition to a new path and provided me with the opportunity to discover my passion for cultural analysis, English literature and Anthropology. At the same time, the curriculum has opened my eyes to various topical issues that are important and relevant to discuss. And the good thing about the programme, it encouraged me to think outside the box, view things from different perspectives, and made me understand the value of practical knowledge. In fact, the programme has helped me hone my skills in creative writing and storytelling. This led me to my passion project of creating video contents in the form of vlogs. Through this, I am able to share my stories, personal struggles and experiences as a foreign student. My goal is to inspire and to motivate aspiring international students who want to study in Tallinn, Estonia. And also, to provide some helpful tips and insights that could help them with their journey.
The only constant thing in life is change and these changes are inevitable. It's never easy, but we always need to look at these moments as an opportunity for growth and learning. With that, I am glad to have taken this leap and I'm grateful that Tallinn University was there to guide me through this path.
On the third year of our studies, my course mates and I would sometimes gather and reminiscent about the past experiences that we had at the university. The recurrent topic of our conversations was how confused we were, compared to now, at our first classes because we were just entering the field of our studies. Looking back at it, we could recognise an astonishing growth in our knowledge and skills, and the expansion of our horizons. Liberal education aims at providing one with tools and background to be analytical of the world around. It is a wide field, which offers all imaginable dimensions in order to transform one into a well-rounded person.
Graduating high school, I had no clear idea what I want to study and what I want my life to look like in the future. After browsing through various options, this programme attracted me with the freedom of choice it was giving me: not only I could choose my specialisation from 7 different modules but I was also free in the selection of my electives. I made full use of that: my main modules – Asian studies and Anthropology – complimented each other and my electives helped me to develop other skills like photography or team management. However, fieldwork for my final research paper had been a truly revelatory experience for me. All the knowledge I gained through the lectures and books was fuelling my performance as an anthropologist. I have become confident to be curious, to knock at the seemingly closed doors, to ask questions from strangers, to navigate through complex relations an anthropologist develops with one’s participants, and to think of the world holistically. I am now studying Anthropology here at Tallinn University.
What does it mean to study Liberal Arts? It means freedom and dynamics, possibilities and support. I recommend this course to everybody!
Read about his experience here.
I came out of high school with a broad interest in art, literature, languages, social structures, and consistent ways and tools to make sense of our lives as humans. I also wanted to try studying somewhere outside of Russia where I am from. After considering different higher education options, I have chosen the Liberal Arts in Humanities program.
The subjects I majored in were Philosophy and Anthropology. In addition to that, I was able to satisfy my curiosity by taking open elective courses in other disciplines like Psychology, Literary studies, and Linguistics. The program also offered a series of seminars on research methods that are used in Humanities and Social Sciences. Within the framework of these seminars, I was given an opportunity to carefully plan and conduct several pieces of pilot research of my own. It was especially these practical and creative exercises that made me realize that I would like to continue learning and conducting more immersive research on a Master's level.
During my second year of studies, I made use of the Erasmus+ exchange program and have spent one year at Würzburg University. I came there without knowing a single word in German and left with the upper-intermediate level of the language, as well as some experience of local academic approach and traditions.
I think that at this stage in life it was very important for me to be able to try my strength at different disciplines and get a glimpse of what academic and everyday life is like further away from home in Germany. After I graduated at the beginning of 2020 I felt ready to make a well-informed choice regarding what I want to study more in-depth on the Master's level as well as where is the place I would like to do it the most. I am now studying Audiovisual Anthropology here at Tallinn University.
I chose to study in the Liberal Arts programme because it offered a wider range of options and opportunities than regular study programmes. My studies never got boring because there was so much diversity in the courses I have taken. Liberal Arts has provided me with a great platform for future master's degree studies; I was not limited to one subject field but I had multiple choices. Tallinn University is a great university to do these studies because of the easy application process and variety of the studies. Getting to know Tallinn, Estonia, and Estonian culture while studying here has been one of the most rewarding part of my studies.
I was an Erasmus exchange student in the Netherlands for the autumn semester of 2016.
An advantage of doing a bachelor degree in Liberal Arts is the possibility to combine different disciplines in one study programme. I have already a degree in the technical field, but always had a general interest in Humanities as well. The Liberal Arts programme at Tallinn University provides a good opportunity to get an overview of the field and develop a basic understanding of a wide variety of academic disciplines and acquire necessary skills for further studies. Different modules offer a scope to discover new interests and explore them deeper.
However, such a versatile and flexible curriculum brings also some frustration into your life. During my studies here, I had always trouble explaining to my friends that at the end I won’t have a diploma, which endows a particular profession. Liberal Arts means freedom; it is a good start that helps you to find your way and decide about further specialisation. In my case, majoring in Philosophy and Anthropology led me to the field of Cultures of Knowledge and Technology, which brought together my current studies with my previous experience. Nevertheless, it’s quite flexible to make me eligible to apply for almost any master's programme.
Studying in English means that you encounter many international students and have a lot of friends from different countries. You can also spend a semester or two abroad. I went on Erasmus exchange to the Netherlands (autumn 2016 and spring 2017), which benefited my studies by adding a unique cultural experience and courses I could never have at my home university.
When I made a decision to study Liberal Arts at Tallinn University, I didn't have a particular idea of what I wanted to become in the future. I have always been good at humanities and had a general interest in anthropology, so I decided that this course would fit me nicely. My mother had obtained her first degree from Tallinn University back in the 80s, some of my friends had also studied here; thus I imagined that there must be a good level of higher education.
The course had, in fact, exceeded my expectations. I think that an interdisciplinary programme such as Liberal Arts is a good foundation when taken at BA level. It gives you versatile knowledge, and very soon you begin to see that all subjects are connected. Being able to choose your classes is a great chance to work with different professors and make the most of your degree. Moreover, Tallinn University gives you an opportunity to learn foreign languages (for me, it was French).
I am currently doing an MA in Material and Visual Culture at University College London. After obtaining my Master's degree, I plan to continue my studies at the doctoral level.