The 2-year Master’s programme in Semiotics provides interdisciplinary background and gives a theoretical base for application of semiotic ideas to a wide variety of disciplines and scientific study. The programme binds together the theory of semiotics and three core modules - cultural semiotics, biosemiotics and sociosemiotics. The programme also combines the major semiotic traditions of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Peirce with the leading contemporary and innovative thought.
Semiotics is the general study of sign processes, or semiosis. Semiosis makes the world meaningful. Today’s world, where processes have a disbalance of global and local dimension, challenges us to understand the need of individuals and societies for defining their identity. Semiotics is centrally relevant to achieve this understanding.
The Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu is one of the most important centres of semiotics in Europe, with deep roots for cultural semiotics and biosemiotics. Names and work of Jakob von Uexküll and Juri Lotman, founder of world-renowned Tartu-Moscow Semiotics School, form the cornerstone of the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu. The Department of Semiotics also holds the memorial library of Thomas A. Sebeok, which was received as a donation.
Eligibility Criteria
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, natural sciences or humanities.
English Language Requirements
International applicants must provide proof of the English language proficiency (BA, MA programmes; intensive Estonian language course on the basis of English). The following tests with scores outlined below are accepted:
1. TOEFL (iBT) - minimum required score is 75 from internet based test. The TOEFL result must be sent directly to the University of Tartu by the Educational Testing Service. TOEFL institutional code for the University of Tartu is 0133. If a candidate has ordered his/her TOEFL test result to be sent directly to the University of Tartu, the score can be checked online before the paper reaches UT;
2. IELTS (academic) - minimum required score is 5.5 (no part can be below 5.5). Copy of the test result is accepted as it will be verified online by UT;
3. Cambridge English: First (FCE) - minimum required result is grade C (B2 level);
4. Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE);
5. Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE);
6. Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) - minimum required score is 59;
7. Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA);
8. Cambridge ESOL tests: ILEC ja ICFE;
9. Finnish ylioppilastutkinto In English, long course – graded at least magna cum laude approbatur (M) 5.
10. English language test taken at the Language Centre of the University of Tartu or Tallinn University. The test has to be taken before applying, testing takes place only in Tartu/Tallinn, Estonia. Minimum B2 level is required;
11. Estonian state exam in English - minimum required result is B2 level (for exams taken in 1997-2013 66 points or higher).
