Nowadays there is no doubt that social and emotional skills (SES) are a key
element in human development. Plenty of research and official reports show that
if children are not attaining minimal SES at around six years of age, they are
likely to be at risk in the next stages of their development. Well-developed
SES in children contribute to academic success, improve learning conditions,
are a powerful tool for empowering children for a better future, for a happier
and more productive life, but also they are an irreplaceable tool for
prevention of social exclusion, aggression and bullying, school dropout,
different types of risk behaviours, psychopathology, unemployment,
etc. Deficits in SES lead to poor academic results, may lead to problems with
social adaptation or serious psychopathology, substance abuse problems,
challenges finding employment or run-ins with the law, etc. Supporting SES
development in the early years increases children's chances of success in
school, work, and life. It will have an impact on the children themselves, but
also a great indirect impact on their families, teachers, and society as a
whole. The EU-SELF project aims to be an innovative approach of linking the
knowledge and expertise in the field of SES and the educational practices.
The Faculty of Medicine, in close cooperation with agents within public healthcare and medicine, contributes to increasing knowledge of high relevance to human health. This is done through education and research of the highest quality in cooperation with wider society. The faculty has about 2000 employees and 2800 students and offers 8 undergraduate programmes, 3 Master’s programmes and 10 specialised programmes for nurses and midwives. In addition, the faculty offers postgraduate education. We have about 1000 postgraduate research students and every year about 150 doctoral dissertations are presented.
