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• The programme offers courses which support your impactful project development.
• All courses have an international approach so you can focus on a country or region you are most interested in when doing your assignments but also learn about other countries and regions.
• You will complete your studies with a master thesis.
• There is no upper limit to the number of courses you can take – you can study as much as you like.
• During the study period contact learning takes place in the first half of the day. On average, there are about 25 hours of contact learning per week (mostly from Monday to Friday), but there is also a substantial amount of independent work. 

Core course components

• Social Entrepreneurship, Concept and Practice 6 ECTS
• Contemporary Social Problems 6 ECTS
• The Concept of Social Capital and Social Impact 6 ECTS
• Civil Society and Social Innovations 6 ECTS
• Social Innovation and Responsible Governance 6 ECTS
• Business development models 6 ECTS
• Project management 6 ECTS
• Open Innovation Systems 6 ECTS
• Tech for Everyone: Shaping the Future with E-Service Innovation 6ETC
• Research methods and methodology for social entrepreneurship 6 ECTS
• Master Thesis Seminar 6 ECTS
• LIFE course 6 ECTS

Katri-Liis Lepik (Estonia) is Associate Professor of Management at Tallinn University. She is head of the global Master’s programme of Social Entrepreneurship and a mentor in the online Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. Having worked for public, private and non-profit sector, she possesses competences relevant for international collaboration and management consultancy. She is a board member of the social enterprise The Skill Mill Limited.

Audrone Urmanaviciene (Lithuania) is a lecturer of social entrepreneurship at Tallinn University. She has PhD in Management Science. Audrone's research interests are a social enterprise, social impact and social impact assessment. She is a member of EMES - an international research network for social enterprises.

Jaan Aps (Estonia) leads Stories For Impact, an applied research and consultancy agency dedicated to increasing organisations’ positive impact on people’s well-being and development. He has extensive experience advising social, mental health, education, and youth work organisations on designing and evaluating impact-focused services and programmes.

WWW: 

Twitter: @stories4impact

David Parks OBE (Scotland) has had a career focused on developing multi-disciplinary public services, primarily within the justice system. He has established an international network, sharing practice and ideas with criminal justice agencies including the National Partnership for Juvenile Services (USA) and academic and practice institutions in Europe. In 2013 he founded The Skill Mill Limited – a multi award-winning Social Enterprise dedicated to the employment of young ex-offenders in environmental work – with teams established and developing across the UK using Social Impact Bonds. He has been appointed as leader for Let's Do It World's World Clean Up Day for the UK. He has been named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by King Charles III for services to young people.

Leendert De Bell (Netherlands) is professor for sustainable labour participation of vulnerable groups (in particular refugees) at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (HU) and is academic staff member at the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Utrecht University (UU). He obtained his PhD in International Development Studies at Utrecht University and has extensive international experience in research and training for both private and public sector organisations. His current research mainly focuses on issues related to scaling the societal impact of social enterprises, in particularly related to work integration.

Lauri Leppik (Estonia)  is Professor of Social and Population Policy at Tallinn University. Lauri does research in Ageing and Social Policy. His current project is 'SHARE- Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe.' His research fields include: pensions, social exclusion, legislation, assessment, redistribution, public policy analysis, discal policy and taxation.

Aldo Valencia (Mexico) is Assistant Professor of Newcastle Business School of Northumbria University, UK. Aldo is a consultant, ex-head of product innovation for a global pharmaceutical company, certified facilitator in human-centred design, business innovation, strategic design-led innovation workshops, design sprints, and working sessions in hybrid environments.

General requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent.
• Proof of English Proficiency
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Please see the complete overview of admission and application requirements for Master's level applicants.

Admission exam

1. Exam procedure:

• The admission exam consists of an interview. Maximum points for the interview are 100. The minimum admissions score is 70 points;
• The interview will be 20 minutes long and centres on the CV  (incl. educational background, work experience, other relevant experience i.e any internships, part-time jobs, volunteering, or leadership roles that relate to the study programme), motivation of the applicant and study programme related articles/topics that serve as an input for the exam;
• The admission committee consists of at least two members;
• The interview begins with the identification. At the beginning of the interview the candidate shows their ID and for the purposes of identity verification, the admission committee has the right to record the online interview;
• There is an expectation that the candidate is able to express themselves at least at English level B2 (language proficiency).

2. Evaluation criteria of the interview:

• The candidate`s interest in the programme and motivation to study in the field applying common study methods in social sciences; 
• Capacity to understand the focal arguments of the interview input (eg article) and provide their viewpoints into the discussion; 
• General background and field-related knowledge, language proficiency and the ability to engage in analytical discussions; 
• Capacity to contextualise previous work, study and voluntary activity experience in the frames of the chosen programme.

The interview will be 20 minutes long and will centre on the CV, project plan (850-1000 characters), background, and ambitions.

Preparation for the exam:

1.Written assignment:

Please, submit your CV, covering the following topics:

Education background

• Including specialties in schools if applicable
• Any special or additional classes taken the candidate sees relevant

Work and volunteer experience

• Including anything the candidate sees as relevant
• What were the tasks and responsibilities

Previous experience with entrepreneurship

• Could include volunteer and or internship experience

Other relevant skills and experience

• Whatever other things the candidate deems relevant

A project plan for an impactful entrepreneurial initiative including:

• Introduction of a social enterprise idea that you may develop during the Social Entrepreneurship programme. It can be a working enterprise or a completely new idea.
• Clarification of the problem you want to address.
• The target group.
• The expected impact (impact refers to the effect your project/idea has on people, communities, or the environment)
• The plan for a revenue stream.

2. Preparation for the interview

Preparation for the interview: the candidate should consider their motivation for the programme, look up the programme, prepare to talk about the project plan in detail.

3. The interview

The interview lasts 20 minutes.

4. Grading scales

Future jobs and employment opportunities

Social entrepreneurs are welcome both in public sector bringing sustainable solutions to social and health services and also in private sector helping businesses to have larger social impact:

• Social entrepreneur
• Non-profit manager
• CSR manager
• Project manager
• Analyst of social impact
• Business developer
• Community developer

SEMA program has been a very transformative journey for me as I learnt my core competencies and areas of improvement as well. With the program’s combination of academic understanding and real-world projects and workshops, I received a well-rounded and hands-on experience that gave me the insights on how to bring social change. All the preliminary knowledge, guidance and research needed for my own project setup is provided during this program and of course the journey has been amazing with supportive faculty.

I am Ukrainian and started SEMA in 2021 physically. Next year russian invasion held me in Ukraine with closed borders, so I had to finish the studies in online mode during a war in Ukraine. It was both an extreme and existentially consistent period for me both as an international student and a citizen of a bombed country. I am thankful for an opportunity to make a scientific research in such conditions, and happy to reveal an entrepreneurship and activism for bringing social changes in Ukraine.

Participating in the SEMA program was exactly what I needed to bring my Social Enterprise to the next level. There wasn’t a course in which I didn’t learn anything new… From designing the business model to creating a transmedia marketing plan. All lecturers were involved on a personal level, providing tailored support and thinking out of the box to make every interaction the most valuable experience possible. I did so many cool things thanks to the network I established here, like organizing a professional photoshoot, shooting a brand video, writing an impact report, starting a crowdfunding, and pitching my idea at STARTERtallinn. In fact, there wasn’t an opportunity left unseized to collaborate on my enterprise.

One of the highlights of the Social Entrepreneurship Masters Programme was to participate as a project leader in the LIFE/ELU project. How often do you get the chance to create your own brand video with a team of professionals?! The students were incredibly knowledgeable, skilled, and if course FUN to work with. The result is a highly refined video that I still use almost every day to promote the work of my social enterprise. Obviously that’s what you get when you put a bunch of like-minded individuals together with a team of fluffy alpacas… So thankful for this experience that TLU provided me with!

SEMA program played a crucial role in the creation of Counseling Souls OÜ. It gave wings to my dream of taking my work and expertise of working for Mental Health to global platform. It not only provided me with valuable exposure to internationalization but also gave me the opportunity to train under some of the best professors, who guided the development of a social enterprise focused on improving mental health. 

Counseling Souls OÜ- Enhancing Mental Health & Career Guidance across Borders is a social enterprise that provides culturally sensitive and effective educational and counseling services, to people across the world, with especial focus on migrants, expatriate issues, trauma, those at risk of leaving education and training early or at risk of social exclusion. 

“I applied to the Tallinn University Master’s Degree in Social Entrepreneurship course after completing an online course of Social Entrepreneurship in the University of Oxford – Department for Continuing Education. I decided to undertake the short online course when Covid-19 pandemic started and it certainly grew my interest in the field of which I did not previously have a great deal of knowledge. 

When I came across the detailed overview of the Tallinn University Master’s Degree in Social Entrepreneurship, I knew that was the next step to take in my academic journey. One of the key elements that I was very impressed by was the variety of practical and theoretical courses offered during the two years of studies. Another important factor was that the lecturers of the degree have such different backgrounds and most of them are leaders in highly performing institutions across all the sectors.

As Covid-19 pandemic was then still very present when the studies commenced, the lectures and seminars were quickly adapted to take an online format. This form of degree studies gave an opportunity for all the students to better manage their time and find the work-study-life balance that best suited them. Estonia is globally recognised for the digital competences of its population and it translated very clearly to the setting of the online degree studies – not only the students were able to successfully participate in lectures and seminars, but we were also learning to use a number of important programs.

From business development models, and project management to open innovations systems, and civil society and social innovations we gained valuable theoretical and practical competences that most of the students were able to use directly in their professional lives. Additionally, we were challenged to hands-on courses that gave us real-life experience in writing a project and applying for local or international funding for it, participating in a hackathon with our own business ideas and later organising one for youth, and conducting large scale surveys and interviews for data collection for the masters thesis. 

Having graduated the SEMA course successfully, I have not only already gained valuable experience assisting the management of a global scale non-profit organisation, working as a junior researcher for a project that partnered with Tallinn University, and participated as a social entrepreneurship advisor on several start-ups, but am now able to confidently pursue a career in other fields with a positive environmental and societal impact that are increasing globally in the labor market.”

EU/EEA applicants 

Application procedure for the citizens of the member countries of the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) can be found here.

Non-EU/EEA applicants

Application procedure for the international applicants from Non-EU/EEA countries can be found here.

Estonian citizens and holders of a long-term residence permit

Application procedure for Estonian citizens or for holders of an Estonian long-term residence permit can be found in Estonian here and in English here.

The school of Governance, Law, and Society has a large international student body and a large number of international faculty members. The lecturers have international networks that make it possible to arrange exciting international events that students can participate in.

Extracurricular Activities

Hackathons, creative hubs, incubation, pre-incubation

We encourage our students to participate with their project ideas in hackathon events, idea fairs and programmes of different creative hubs. Tallinn University also organizes similar events promoting creative development and entrepreneurship among our students. Our LIFE courses are special opportunities to develop new ideas with participants from very different study fields.

Erasmus mobility

Students have a chance to apply for the Erasmus programme and receive the Erasmus scholarship. The Erasmus programme includes different mobility options in Europe as well as outside of Europe such as long-term and short-term exchange studies and traineeship. Our online students are welcome to apply for the Erasmus programme, however, they have to handle visa and residence permit matters themself. 

• Specific questions regarding the programme should be directed to the School of Governance, Law and Society: 

• For additional guidelines regarding the application procedure please contact the International Admission Office: