Prospective Students
Structure of the programme
Students seeking to obtain the Transatlantic Master Degree (TMD) need, as a minimum, to complete a total of 2 years of studies (4 semesters) across three universities in Finland, Sweden and the USA:
- One semester at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
- One semester at the University of Helsinki (UH)
- Two semesters (one study year) at either North Carolina State University (NCSU) or Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech or MTU).
It is required that students spend three semesters on course work and 1 semester on preparing a MS thesis. If desired, students are welcome to complete more courses, however, the transatlantic fellowship (€12,000/academic year for European students and USD12,000/academic year for US students) only provides for one year of studies on the other side of Atlantic.
Exchange students between SLU and UH can obtain Erasmus scholarships amounting to (€250/month). The TMD MS thesis needs to be defended at one university in the USA and one university in Europe. As a result, the student will obtain two MS diplomas.
American and European students may compile their individual plans as desired, for example, they may start the program at either European university and complete it in the US or vice versa.
For more details, contact the project representatives at the home university .
Master thesis and awarding of the degrees
The Master thesis is a strict prerequisite for being awarded an MS degree at each Consortium university. Thus, for a dual degree, students must comply with thesis requirements at both awarding universities. To enable a dual degree (double diploma), Consortium partners will ensure joint supervision of the thesis work from the two awarding universities, one each in the US and European Union (EU). The thesis will be presented publicly at one of the universities; videoconferencing software will be used to have a simultaneous presentation at the partner university. The co-advisor and audience at the remote site will have an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the seminar. The seminar will be followed by a closed door committee meeting where the student defends their research and the committee gives feedback to the student.
Whenever possible, students will be strongly encouraged to adopt a comparative EU-US perspective in their Master theses. Each of the Consortium member institutions is able to confer their Master’s degree to the transatlantic degree program student if the 120 ECTS requirement is fulfilled (minimum 30 US credit hours ) and if the Master’s Thesis is defended at the given institution according to the set-up described previously.
