Psychology's Transfer to the Faculty of Medicine and How This Affects Cognitive Science
Today's psychology subject group meeting reviewed rumors about a possible transfer of the psychology discipline to the Faculty of Medicine. The department staff's attitude would generally be positive, and the transfer was seen as an opportunity to strengthen the psychology discipline and provide better education for medical teaching and research. However, it can be said that such a massive change will also leave behind a significant wave of uncertainty, from which cognitive science may suffer in the future.
About two weeks ago, the first discussions began about the transfer of the psychology discipline to the University of Helsinki's Faculty of Medicine. If you haven't heard about this before, don't be alarmed, as the matter had been kept quite hidden until then. Even during the past two weeks, only staff and student representatives have known about the discussions. At today's subject group meeting, the head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Jussi Saarinen, finally shed light on the planning work that had been ongoing for some time and its effects on the future of the Department of Behavioural Sciences.
At its simplest, the potential transfer is as follows: by 2018, psychology and logopedics education would be transferred to the Faculty of Medicine. The transfer is justified by synergy benefits in both teaching and research. As part of the change, parts of neuroscience located at the Viikki campus would also move to the Faculty of Medicine at Meilahti.
The meeting emphasized the word 'potential' when discussing the transfer. Indeed, nothing has been finalized, but strong progress is being made toward concretization. The university rector has given the green light to the planning work and its consequences. The top management of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences also views the matter positively, although the reason for the transfer is that the psychology discipline has not benefited from the synergy advantages offered by the faculty at all (belonging to the same faculty as educational sciences and teacher education has reportedly been useless). Saarinen also said that Dean Patrik Scheinin supports the idea but experiences it as a personal defeat.
What are the synergy benefits offered by the Faculty of Medicine? According to Saarinen, psychology at the University of Helsinki wants to profile itself more strongly toward neuropsychology in the future. The Faculty of Medicine would serve as an enabler in this area. Another factor is the development of clinical expertise, which would occur on both sides. Together, both of the above factors would raise the competence of psychologists and improve their employment. Psychology's direction is in neuroscience and medicine.
Effects on Cognitive Science
The transfer of psychology and logopedics will be a significant change, and not all of its consequences are yet known. As can be seen from reading above, the starting point for planning has been the improvement of psychology teaching and research. Other disciplines at the Department of Behavioural Sciences and their interests have at least in some sense been secondary.
First, we can examine what happens to the department if psychology leaves. In the composition of the Department of Behavioural Sciences, psychology is most strongly represented at both the student and staff levels. In terms of numbers, the change would be enormous, as psychology and logopedics, which are transferring to the Faculty of Medicine, together comprise about 500 students (the Faculty of Medicine's student count is about 1000). It is questionable whether it would make sense to run the Department of Behavioural Sciences with only phonetics, cognitive science, and educational sciences after such a change.
For cognitive science, there are three options. We can stay in the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, which would involve major structural changes to place cognitive science as part of this mixed group. It is interesting what would happen to psychology studies included in basic studies. The subject group meeting mentioned that in the future, psychology minor studies would be prioritized for units under the Faculty of Medicine (medical sciences, psychology, logopedics) and for others, minor teaching would occur through the Open University. However, it may also be that study rights are maintained and cognitive scientists will have another campus to travel to for mandatory studies.
The second option is to follow psychology to the Faculty of Medicine, which is considered a very weak option. For example, Otto Lappi said he had discussed with some cognitive science students who had stated that the transfer would be senseless for cognitive science, as the same synergy benefits, for example in clinical areas, would not benefit cognitive scientists. Jussi Saarinen expressed similar thoughts and indicated this as an opportunity to cut cognitive science's umbilical cord to psychology.
The third option is to leave psychology and the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences behind and transfer to another faculty. Options for this are the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science. Regarding the Faculty of Arts, it can be mentioned that this was cognitive science's original faculty, from which cognitive science was later merged into Behavioural Sciences. Moving toward the Faculty of Science, it is possible to take cognitive science closer to the model prevailing in other universities (for example, in Jyväskylä, cognitive science is part of computer science).
Regardless of which decision is made regarding cognitive science, major changes are ahead in both administration and identity. At this point, however, the still-unfilled professorship must be raised. After discussing with Saarinen after the event, he emphasized the importance of concretizing cognitive science's placement for the professorship. Primarily, it should be known where cognitive science will transfer or stay so that a professor can be successfully selected. This will most likely mean that the cognitive science professorship will not even be open for applications in 2015, despite earlier promises. Cognitive scientists will thus spend almost their fourth year without a professor.