Welcome to the world of Master’s degree programs at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences

The University of Applied Sciences Master's Degree (YAMK) is a degree program intended for people who typically already have a Bachelor’s degree and are currently practicing their profession, but who wish to deepen their professional skills and competences through further studies. Studies in Metropolia Master’s degree programs provide new expert knowledge for tackling, in particular, demanding change and development projects at work. The studies emphasize learning tasks carried out in a genuine work environment, often at the student’s own workplace. This genuine co-operation with the work life is a special feature of higher education degrees, which combine in a most relevant way theory and developmental research work. In fact, the most important learning task during the Master’s studies is the developmental research work in the form of a Master’s thesis. Another important feature is co-creation of information.

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (UAS) is celebrating its tenth year of operation this year. In this publication, we wish to give the reader a quick glimpse of what kind of Master’s theses have been carried out over the years and what kind of know-how the authors, their work communities, and even entire industries have gained through these theses.

This online publication is built on textual dialogue between Metropolia alumni and experts at Metropolia UAS. In their texts, the alumni first tell about their learning experiences and describe their own thesis. Next to each alumni text is a text by Metropolia expert/s, which serves to expand the perspective of the development project carried out by the alumni and mirrors the content and the significance of the development project to the current state of the field in question. Thus, the dialogue helps create a holistic picture of how Master's studies linked with work life help the students move forward in their careers as individuals, along with their work communities and the whole industry.

One of Metropolia’s many strengths is its multidisciplinarity: we offer studies in the fields of culture, business, social and health care as well as technology. In this spirit, we have included in this publication a wide range of development projects carried out by our Master’s students from all these fields. Metropolia currently has 25 Master’s degree programs of which 14 are presented here. Since we offer degrees both in English and in Finnish, this publication includes texts in both languages ​​- according to the language of instruction.

The UAS Master’s Degree has developed strongly over the past ten years. In making this publication, the stories of these students and the development projects they have conducted have confirmed the relevance of this type of professional degree in the education field. This is why it is excellent news that in recent years Metropolia, along with other Finnish higher education institutions, has established several new programs leading to UAS Master’s degrees. We have included in this publication some new degree programs that no one has graduated from yet. These include Master’s Degree programs in design, gerontology and health promotion.

The publication process has been very rewarding for us editors as it has immersed us in one kind of development work. Exploring the world of higher education and UAS Master’s degrees in the form of this web publication would not have been possible without several contributing persons. Our warm thanks to the enthusiastic and open-minded alumni writers and members of Metropolia faculty. Thank you also Marianne Roivas and Sonja Holappa for support with the language. Many thanks to Satu Orkola and Pekka Perälampi for the development of the online platform.

And you,our reader - thank you for taking the time to enjoy our web publication! We hope you will find the stories inspiring ... maybe even to such degree that you will find yourself doing higher education studies soon.

In Helsinki, 5 December 2018

Marjatta Kelo ja Elina Ala-Nikkola
Editors