Senate
The senate is the university's academic decision-making body which is responsible for teaching and research and development work at the university and which should ensure high quality of work in those areas. The senate adopts the statutes of the university and submits these to the council for approval. The senate has the power to exercise a one-time veto in respect of a council resolution by which the university's budget is adopted.
The senate is composed of the Rector as its chair and of up to 21 members who are elected by members of the university and of whom at least 1/5 must be students. In the first senate elections (held 17-21 October 2011), the 21 Senate positions were divided as follows: the university's teaching and research staff elected 16 members and the UT Student Council 5 members. Four members were elected by the teaching and research staff to represent each principal research domain of the university - humaniora, medicina, realia et naturalia and socialia.
The members of the first Senate are:
representing the humaniora research domain:
• Birute Klaas-Lang, Professor of Estonian (as a Foreign Language)
• Art Leete, Head of UT Institute of Cultural Research and Fine Arts, Professor of Ethnology
• Ain Riistan, Lecturer of New Testament and Research Fellow of Religious Studies
• Anti Selart, Professor of the Middle Ages
representing the medicina research domain:
• Hele Everaus, Head of UT Clinic of Haematology/Oncology, Professor of Haematology/Oncology
• Priit Kaasik, Head of UT Institute of Exercise Biology and Physiotherapy, Senior Lecturer of Functional Morphology
• Ruth Kalda, Head of the Polyclinic of UT Hospital, Professor of Family Medicine
• Irja Lutsar, Head of UT Institute of Microbiology, Professor of Medical Microbiology and Virology
representing the realia et naturalia research domain:
• Leho Ainsaar, Head of UT Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences
• Maia Kivisaar, Professor of Microbial Genetics
• Enn Lust, Head of UT Institute of Chemistry, Professor of Physical Chemistry
• Jaak Vilo, Head of UT Institute of Computer Science, Professor of Bioinformatics
representing the socialia research area:
• Jüri Allik, Head of UT Institute of Psychology, Professor of Experimental Psychology
• Toomas Haldma, Head of UT Institute of Business Administration, Professor of Accounting
• Marju Lauristin, Professor of Social Communication
• Raul Narits, Head of UT Institute of Public Law
representing the students:
• Ingmar Jaska (humaniora), Master's student of the Faculty of Philosophy
• Eno-Martin Lotman (medicina), student of the Faculty of Medicine
• Arko Kesküla (realia et naturalia), PhD student of the Faculty of Science and Technology
• Erik Raudsepp (realia et naturalia), student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
• Silver Ool (socialia), student of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education
The e-mail addresses of the members of the senate, just like for all the University staff, follow the formula firstname [dot] surname [ät] ut [dot] ee. Should the names contain any umlauts or the Estonian-specific õ-character, they will modified as follows: õ->o, ä->a, ö->o, ü->u.
Additional information: Ivar-Igor Saarniit, Academic Secretary, ivar [dot] saarniit [ät] ut [dot] ee (ivar [dot] saarniit [ät] ut [dot] ee)