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“In some ways we have tried to run ahead of the train and achieve the goals set for the reforms before we even actually merge with other institutions,” says Katrin Saks, director of Baltic Film- and Media School, addressing internationalisation and interdisciplinarity.

The biggest challenge for BFM – creating a Digital Learning Games programme – is still waiting to be confirmed by the Ministry of Education and Research. “We eagerly await people willing to start in the programme already this year to start creating new and exciting learning software what would work on various digital platforms,” she adds.

The study programme is new not only by content, but also its form. It is what we call an intra-university common study programme, which is a collaboration between BFM and the Institutions of Informatics, Educational Sciences and Psychology.

“We have previous experience from common study programmes with other universities, and I have to admit it has not been much easier doing this within our own university,” Saks says and hopes the first try will succeed and pave the way for new interdisciplinary study programmes.

The interest toward the new programme is big, a point proved by the organising of a large international gaming conference held in TU this week.

BFM also has a Master’s Programme called Kino Eyes, which is held in collaboration with Lisbon University and the Edinburgh Film School. The programme is also supported by Erasmus+. BFM’s task in this is to conduct studies during two semesters for train operators, editors, sound editors and supervise their final theses. Currently lecturers are discussing who to accept to the programme, for there are 250 applicants from 72 countries.

In addition to new fields, we are also trying to renew our current programmes to make them even better. We have developed our English audio visual and cross media programmes and we have a steady growth in the number of international students. Now we wish to share our technology and skills with the current students currently at the Institute of Communications and with those who are starting their journalism or media studies this year. We are currently reviewing and amending our study programmes.

“Media organisations are no longer hiring people based on their writing skills. For today’s journalist, the ability to create an audio-visual entity is considered elementary,” Saks explains.

We also have plans considering the Institute of Fine Arts. The Ministry of Education and Research made a proposal to prepare a programme to train art and music teachers. In collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts we prepared a Master’s programme for fine arts teachers and we expect to start accepting students in 2016. We have not been equally successful in cooperating with the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre; this is still a long journey ahead of us.

We are trying to create a BA programme that combines multiple creative disciplines and could produce hobby education coordinators or producers. We would also like to inject this programme with media and audio-visual skills.

Another big keyword is cooperation. We plan common projects both within Tallinn University and between universities, as well as on an international scale.

“We have been actively writing projects and for example asked for a grant from the Erasmus+ programme to develop our study programmes and promote cooperation between all institutes of higher education that teach creative disciplines,” Saks said.