MSc in Child Studies

Challenge conventional views on children and childhood. This master’s program is interdisciplinary and focuses on the critical study of questions related to children and childhood.

Courses explore various areas: children’s rights, parents and the family, education, and school, migration, culture, the media, and health. You will deepen your knowledge of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives in child studies. These courses will give you a broad knowledge of questions that concern the lives of children. Our core focus is on how to apply the latest research findings in order to critically review, develop, and improve policies and practices related to children and childhood. The program is hosted by an internationally renowned research department, which has conducted research on child and childhood studies since 1988. The teachers are active researchers, which guarantees that cutting-edge knowledge is presented.

Online and on-campus training

The program can be taken in one or two years and will prepare you for designing, planning, and conducting research that concerns children, childhood, and families. Each year is concluded with a 15-credits master’s thesis. The program is primarily taught online with the aid of a digital learning platform, but there are three 1–5 days long on-campus periods in the first year and two in the second. This allows for some flexibility as to where and when you conduct your studies. The program has high academic standards, however, and requires students to commit full time to their studies.

The Master’s Programme in Child Studies is an international study program. Students in the program usually have experiences from many different national and cultural contexts. Throughout the program, students are encouraged to draw on their experiences in discussions and seminars. This will give you the opportunity to exchange ideas about children, childhood, and the family in an international forum.

Syllabus

Introduction

The Master’s Programme in Child Studies is a two-year, full-time study program at an advanced level. Instruction will take place in the form of distance learning online combined with shorter periods of campus-based instruction. Students who wish to complete only one year of the program can apply for a Master’s Degree in Child Studies (60 credits) after having successfully completed all courses of the first and second terms. Successful completion of all courses of the program’s four semesters gives a student the right to apply for a Master’s Degree in Child Studies (120 credits).

The program offers students in-depth knowledge of working at governmental authorities as well as local organizations, both governmental and non-governmental (NGO), whose activities affect children and their living conditions. The program also provides professionals in the fields of, for example, education, politics, social work, and care, with cutting-edge knowledge in issues dealing with children and their living conditions. It also provides preparation for research studies related to Child and Childhood Studies.

Aim

National Qualifications according to the Swedish Higher Education Act

Knowledge and understanding

For a Master of Social Science (60 credits) degree the student shall:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding in Child Studies, including both an overview of the field and specialized knowledge in certain areas of the field as well as insight into current research and development work, and
• demonstrate specialized methodological knowledge in Child Studies.

For a Master of Social Science (120 credits) the student shall:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding in Child Studies, including both broad knowledge of the field and a considerable degree of specialized knowledge in certain areas of the field as well as insight into current research and development work, and
• demonstrate specialized methodological knowledge in Child Studies.

Competence and skills

For a Master of Social Science (60 credits) degree the student shall:

• demonstrate the ability to integrate knowledge and analyze, assess, and deal with complex phenomena, issues, and situations even with limited information
• demonstrate the ability to identify and formulate issues autonomously as well as to plan and, using appropriate methods, undertake advanced tasks within predetermined time frames
• demonstrate the ability in speech and writing to report clearly and discuss his or her conclusions and the knowledge and arguments on which they are based in dialogue with different audiences, and
• demonstrate the skills required for participation in research and development work or employment in some other qualified capacity.

For a Master of Social Science (120 credits) the student shall:

• demonstrate the ability to critically and systematically integrate knowledge and analyze, assess and deal with complex phenomena, issues and situations even with limited information
• demonstrate the ability to identify and formulate issues critically, autonomously, and creatively as well as to plan and, using appropriate methods, undertake advanced tasks within predetermined time frames and so contribute to the formation of knowledge as well as the ability to evaluate this work
• demonstrate the ability in speech and writing both nationally and internationally to report clearly and discuss his or her conclusions and the knowledge and arguments on which they are based in dialogue with different audiences, and
• demonstrate the skills required for participation in research and development work or autonomous employment in some other qualified capacity.

Research

The master's program is hosted by the internationally renowned research unit for Child Studies at Linköping University, which consists of more than 20 researchers, including four professors and several Ph.D. students.

Child Studies

Education and research at Child Studies are about childhood and family with a focus on interaction and language, children’s culture and consumption, and childhood over time and space, all to better see the perspectives of children and young people.

Research on Children

LiU is home to extensive research on children, young people, and perspectives on childhood. The research is multidisciplinary and is conducted at several different institutions.

Pupils' definitions of mental health

The argument that young people do not feel well is common in reports and media. What does it mean? We examine schoolchildren’s experiences of mental health and how such knowledge can add to the knowledge gained from surveys measuring symptoms.

The welfare of the child and the reproductive rights of adults

Is it a right to have biological children? Should treatment with conception be available to all, or should availability be restricted? We study how Swedish legislation and fertility clinics deal with these ethical dilemmas.

Psychiatrization of Childhood?

Swedish child expertise is concerned about the seeming increase in child and youth mental health problems. But is it really a change? The project explores the changing representations of mental ill-health in childhood in media from 1968-2008.

_Are you curious about what it is like to study at LiU? Join us for a chat about what it is like to live and study on our campuses in Sweden. We offer free webinars and recordings for both prospective and admitted degree students throughout the year. Visit our _ _Meet us online _ _page. _

About Linköping University

Linköping University will never rest on its laurels.

In close collaboration with the business world and society, Linköping University (LiU) conducts world-leading, boundary-crossing research in fields including materials science, IT and hearing. In the same spirit, the university offers many innovative educational programs, many of them with a clear vocational focus, leading to qualification as, for example, doctors, teachers, economists, and engineers.

The university has 32,000 students and 4,000 employees on four campuses. Together we seek answers to the complex questions facing us today. Our students are among the most desirable in the labor market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.

LiU achieved university status in 1975 and innovation is our only tradition.

History of Linköping University

In 1975 Sweden’s sixth university was founded in Linköping. Since then Linköping University (LiU) has grown considerably, expanding to Norrköping and Stockholm.

Linköping has been an important center of learning since medieval times when Linköping Cathedral offered a school with extensive international contacts and its own student hall in Paris. In 1627 the Cathedral School became the third upper secondary school in Sweden and in 1843 a college for elementary school teachers began operations. In Norrköping, the Fröbel Institute – Sweden’s first college for training pre-school teachers – was founded in 1902.

From university college to university

What would later become Linköping University began to take shape in the mid-1960s. Higher education in Sweden was expanding and in 1965 the Swedish Parliament decided to establish a branch of Stockholm University, together with a university college of engineering and medicine, in Linköping.

In the autumn of 1967, the branch of Stockholm University moved into premises in central Linköping. There the first students could take courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Two years later the units for engineering and medicine got underway.

In 1970 education and research started moving into the recently built Campus Valla, a short distance from the town center. Buildings A and B were the first to be completed. The same year the various parts were merged to form Linköping University College, including faculties of engineering, medicine and arts, and sciences.

The new university college was the first in Sweden to offer study programs in Industrial Engineering and Management and Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, both starting in 1969. A few years later, in 1975, Linköping University launched Sweden’s first Computer Science and Engineering program.

1975 was also the year when Linköping University College became Linköping University, the sixth university in Sweden. In line with the 1977 reform of the Swedish higher education system, teacher education was also transferred to Linköping University.

Interdisciplinary research and problem-based learning

Linköping University has always worked with innovation in education and research. In 1980 the newly formed Department of Thematic Studies adopted an approach that was new in Sweden. Research was organized in interdisciplinary themes, such as Technology and Social Change or Water and Environmental Studies. Scientists worked across boundaries to solve complex problems. LiU was also first in Sweden to introduce graduate research schools for different themes. The model later spread to other parts of the university and became a national success.

The new Faculty of Health Sciences (Hälsouniversitetet), formed in 1986, combined governmentally and regionally funded education. It introduced a radically changed methodology, being the first in Sweden to use problem-based learning, PBL. Later, LiU became the first university in the world to allow students from different health sciences programs to treat actual patients on a student-managed training ward.

Expansion to Norrköping – and Stockholm

A significant milestone in the history of the University was the opening of Campus Norrköping in 1997. Some programs had previously operated from Norrköping, but the number of students now grew drastically in line with government efforts to expand higher education. Historical factories in the former industrial district were again filled with life, as they were filled with classrooms, laboratories, cafés, a library and of course students.

Linköping University also expanded to Stockholm when the reputable Carl Malmsten School of Furniture sought a collaborative partner from the academic sector. The Malmsten furniture design and handicraft programs became part of LiU in 2000. After almost 60 years at Södermalm in central Stockholm, Malmstens moved to new premises on the island of Lidingö in the autumn of 2009. LiU got its fourth campus.

Buro Millennial / Pexels

LiU in figures

Some important figures for Linköping University.

Education

• 32,000 students (full-time equivalents 17,907)
• 21,400 on Campus Valla
• 5,500 on Campus Norrköping
• 3,900 on University Hospital Campus (US)
• 2,100 distance students and students in other locations, including Campus Lidingö

(Some students take courses on more than one campus.)

• 120 study programs, of which 27 are international programs in English
• 550 single-subject courses
• Exchange agreements with 400 universities in 50 countries
• 2,400 international students
• 2,200 first cycle degrees
• 2,700 second-cycle degrees

Research and scientific training

• 300 professors
• 1,200 PhD students
• 40 licentiate degrees
• 140 doctoral degrees

Staff

• 4,000 employees (full-time equivalents 3,156)