SIG Teaching: Tartu
Bologna system
The Estonian universities have moved over to the Bologna style Bachelor's and Master's degrees (3+2 study years). BA/BSc degree consists of 120 CP (credits; 1 CP = 40 work hours =1.5 ECTS) and has a normal duration 3 study years. MA/MSc degree amounts to additional 80 CP. All new students follow the Bologna style curriculum since 2002/2003.
The courses are organised on the basis of credit accumulation. While in full-time study, most students complete 40 credits a year.
The model of higher education: 3 years of Bachelor + 2 years of Master + 4 years of Ph D studies, or 120 + 80 + 160 CP.
On the Master’s level we have the speciality of computational linguistics (with linguistic background) and of language technology (with computer science background). Admission to the Master’s studies is based on the results of an entrance examination.
The Master's programme in Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics
Precondition for entry into the programme of computational linguistics - completion of the speciality module in computational linguistics of the bachelor´s programme. The curriculum is composed of studies in the speciality (56 CP), master´s thesis (20 CP) and optional subjects (4 CP). Master’s thesis may be replaced with master examination (5CP+5 CP), the volume of studies in the speciality will in this case rise to 66 CP.
The Master's programme in Computer Science
Provides profound knowledge about a specific field of computer science which enables a graduate to conduct development work in the field, qualifications to hold specialised consultations, and teamwork and project work skills. A student may choose between the narrow fields of theoretical computer science, language technology or cryptology.
GENERAL SCHEME of Master's studies in Computer Science:
Total 80 CP
Compulsory subjects 32 CP
Didactics of informatics 4 CP
Elective subjects 16 CP
Optional subjects 4 CP
Master’s seminar 4 CP
Master’s thesis 20 CP
Areas of expertise
Research is carried out by an informal
group of computational linguistics which involves:
* group of general linguistics at the Faculty of Philosophy (Prof. Haldur Õim) – 2 teachers + 8 research fellows
*
group of language technology at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science (Prof. Mare Koit) – 2 teachers + 1 research fellow
Main research areas
* computational morphology and syntax of written and spoken Estonian
* computational semantics (lexical-semantic data base of Estonian, WSD, semantic analysis of simple sentences)
* dialogue modelling
* collecting and annotating of text corpora of Estonian, corpus of spoken Estonian, Estonian dialogue corpus
Cooperation with
Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology:
Laboratory of Phonetics and Speech Technology (speech synthesis, speech recognition, speaker recognition)
Institute of Estonian Language (computer lexicons)
Experience in distant learning
University of Tartu is using Web CT in some courses.
Courses offered
courses of the Institute of Computer Science (in Estonian; only courses of visiting professors were delivered in English)
some more