University of Tampere  The University of Tampere (UTA) (, ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The University offered undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes with 20,178 degree students and 1,981 employees as of 2016. Founded in 1925 in Helsinki as the Civic College () and from 1930 onwards known as the School of Social Sciences (), the institution relocated to Tampere in 1960 and was renamed as the University of Tampere in 1966. In 2016, its budget was €184.6 million of which 59% was government funding. The institution was established in 1925 as the Civic College in Helsinki teaching public administration, organisation management and journalism with an inaugural intake of 72 students. In 1930, a total of 195 students were enrolled at the College and its name was amended to the School of Social Sciences. Similarly, the institution's vocationally oriented bachelor's degrees were expanded into municipal administration, public law, child protection, and civic education as well as a master's degree in social sciences. The first faculty, the Faculty of Social Sciences, was established in 1949 and the number of students steadily increased from 227 in 1940 to 661 in 1950. The programmes offered by the school grew, such as degrees in social and youth work, librarianship and economics as well as a prison officer's diploma. The first doctoral degree was completed in 1955 and in 1956, the City of Tampere and the School of Social Sciences agreed on relocating the school to Tampere. By 1960, the number of students had increased to 933 and the School of Social Sciences moved to its new Päätalo main building, designed by Toivo Korhonen, at Kalevantie 4, Tampere. After the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration were established in 1964 and 1965, respectively, the School of Social Sciences was renamed as the University of Tampere in 1966. A programme, called Tampere3, to merge the university with Tampere University of Technology and Tampere University of Applied Sciences was started in the spring of 2014. The merger was approved by Parliament in December 2017 and came into effect on 1 January 2019. The new foundation-based interdisciplinary higher education institution was named Tampere University after the proposed name of Tampere New University faced criticism. A total of 14,712 degree students studied at the University of Tampere in 2016, including 11,810 students in bachelor's and master's degree programmes and 1,646 doctoral students.