University of Turku, Finland (UTU)

The University of Turku (UTU) is Finland’s second largest multidisciplinary university, whose roots reach as far as to the Royal Academy of Turku in the 1650s. Today, UTU is an internationally competitive research-led university, which offers study and research opportunities in eight faculties, has some 20,800 students and 3,300 staff members. The Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE) www.utu.fi/CELE at UTU is an internationally attractive research environment, that has long-standing research relations with other distinguished research centres and universities around the world. Based particularly on the traditions of sociology of education, educational policy studies, comparative education research and adult and higher education research, the centre carries out interdisciplinary research on education and learning as part of the whole human life course.

Key-Players

Dr. Tero Järvinen

Dr. Tero Järvinen is Professor of Learning and Education at the Department of Education / Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE) in the University of Turku, Finland. His main research interests are related to comparative studies on educational and school-to-work transitions of young people, as well as education systems and policies governing these transitions. Järvinen has collaborated to several international and national projects and has vast experience in academic leadership.

Website: https://www.utu.fi/en/people/tero-jarvinen

Dr. Minna Kyttälä

Dr. Minna Kyttälä is an Associate Professor of Inclusive and Special Education at the University of Turku. Her main research interests include diversity and inclusion in education, learning and learning trajectories in childhood and adolescence, career orientation in adolescence and teachers’ professional competence. Kyttälä has collaborated to and coordinated several national research projects.

Website: https://www.utu.fi/fi/ihmiset/minna-kyttala

Dr. Jenni Tikkanen
Dr. Jenni Tikkanen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) and she holds a PhD in Education from the University of Turku. Her research interests include sociology of education, comparative education, youth research, and life course studies. In her current postdoctoral research, she examines how the individualisation of social inequalities, privatisation of risks, and gendered nature of individualisation materialise in life courses and biographies of young people in Finland and beyond.

Website: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Person/821682
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jenni-Tikkanen

Dr. Päivi Naumanen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Education / Centre for Lifelong Learning and Education (CELE), University of Turku. She is a sociologist and holds a PhD in Sociology of Education from the University of Turku. Her doctoral thesis “Competitiveness through education” analysed the relationship between education and labour market performance of men and women in Finland. In addition to sociology of education, her research interests include gender studies, research on social inequalities, labour market research and research on welfare related to housing and home ownership. Naumanen has conducted studies in several international comparative research projects (including EU-funded projects) and has recently been involved in the development of digital tools for mental health and well-being at work in the joint European EMPOWER research project.

Website: https://www.utu.fi/en/people/paivi-naumanen

Contribution to the Project

The UTU team brings together experience and expertise relevant for the CLEAR project: experience in EU research projects, a high level of methodological competence as well as research expertise with regard to comparative educational research, youth studies and learning research.