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MOU between TAMK and CETYS is now renewed!
On Friday 22nd of August 2014 Dr. Fernando Leon Garcia, the President of CETYS University, Mexico visited TAMK. The reason for his visit was to learn more about TAMK’s education, international activities and premises and also renew the Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities.
During the visit Dr. Garcia brought out his aspiration to expand the co-operation between TAMK and CETYS. In practice this would mean for example joint summer and/or winter courses, active staff mobility and double degrees especially in the field of International Business, Industrial Engineering, Game Design/Graphic Design and Energy/Environment.
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| Presidents Markku Lahtinen and Fernando Leon Garcia in the signing ceremony. |
Text and photo: Kirsi Tolvanen, Head of International Services
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Anadolu University - Mega-Partner!
This week we have had a visit from Turkey - Anadolu University has been in collaboration with TAMK since 2007 and now it's time to see what new and exciting challenges we could come up with in the new Erasmus+ era.
Anadolu University is one of the biggest mega-universities in the world, with a staggering amount of 1.3 million (yes, million) virtual open and distance learners. TAMK's keen interest in developing new learning environments and perspectives gave birth to a flurry of excited discussions with colleagues during the visit.
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Ms Nil Canbek from Anadolu University also met with colleagues in the TAMK International Services to benchmark some good practices in student and staff mobility, to negotiate future collaboration under the Erasmus+ umbrella and to see if there would be ways to broaden our scope of collaboration from traditional mobility.
Nil arrived in Finland for the very first time and decided to bring along her mother. "I have a young child and a busy job, so this gives us some mother-daughter quality time as well." smiled Nil, when we asked about her personal motivations for the trip to Tampere. With a brief stop in Helsinki before heading back home, the guests seemed to enjoy the unseasonably warm and sunny September weather.
Two-three hours by plane between Finland and Turkey is not far - but in the virtual world the distance is non-existent!
Text: Piri Hiltunen
Photo: Krista Merikoski
Anadolu University is one of the biggest mega-universities in the world, with a staggering amount of 1.3 million (yes, million) virtual open and distance learners. TAMK's keen interest in developing new learning environments and perspectives gave birth to a flurry of excited discussions with colleagues during the visit.
Nil and her mother Nider
Ms Nil Canbek from Anadolu University also met with colleagues in the TAMK International Services to benchmark some good practices in student and staff mobility, to negotiate future collaboration under the Erasmus+ umbrella and to see if there would be ways to broaden our scope of collaboration from traditional mobility.
Nil arrived in Finland for the very first time and decided to bring along her mother. "I have a young child and a busy job, so this gives us some mother-daughter quality time as well." smiled Nil, when we asked about her personal motivations for the trip to Tampere. With a brief stop in Helsinki before heading back home, the guests seemed to enjoy the unseasonably warm and sunny September weather.
Two-three hours by plane between Finland and Turkey is not far - but in the virtual world the distance is non-existent!
Text: Piri Hiltunen
Photo: Krista Merikoski
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Nice Network Meeting 2014 in Riga – a wonderful experience
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| House of Blackheads in Riga |
In summer 2014 Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences participated in the annual NICE network meeting, organized at the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management, Riga Technical University. The organizational team consisted of Inga Lapina, Jolanta Jurēvica, Natalja Lāce and some other persons from RTU.
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| Riga 2 |
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| Riga 3 |
The programme included plenary and workshop sessions on strategic partnerships within ERASMUS+, institutional accreditation and evaluation systems, student and staff mobility, blended learning, placements, internationalization of curricula and grade transfers. In addition, we did a lot of networking.
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| Pirkko, Thomas and Frantisek with other participants trying to recognize own bread |
Some visits were made to old Riga, Jūrmala, the biggest seaside resort in the Baltic States and to a national park. We also visited a bakery where we made our own bread. In the end of the visit we got our bread with us and after returning home the bread reminded us of the really nice stay in Riga.
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Trip to Jūrmala |
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Trip to a national park |
Thank you for organizing the fantastic meeting for all of us!
Text : Pirkko Varis, TAMK
Photos: Regina Parzer, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria
What is NICE network?
The New Initiatives and Challenges in Europe, NICE network is a network for representatives of more than 35 business schools, faculties and departments of business and economics. They work together in order to develop curricula, joint projects, intensive courses, exchanges, internships and other cooperation. Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences has taken part for many years in the NICE network and in the projects initiated by the members of the network. For example the IICEE European module was developed by some partners and now it is part of the curriculum in several universities throughout Europe. An intensive programme was developed based upon the module, too. In annual meetings of the network study programmes and methods are compared, new initiatives are discussed and proposals are made for cooperation and development of the network. The Quality Charter of the NICE network and other information is available on the website of the network www.nicenetwork.eu
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Lost in my backyard - How I decided to take a quick run in my neighborhood
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| Ducks in the lake Tohloppi |
I had a lack of inspiration before writing this anecdote, so I decided to go out and find it. Thus I came across with this paths in the forests. I am sort of lucky for living pretty near to three lakes and to have plenty of forests where to enjoy nature. That is something I really love about Finland since you can discover new paths all the time, as that time when I got lost…
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| Pathways and falling leaves |
I was determined to run 5 kilometers in less than half an hour and I had to choose where to go, so I considered about surrounding Tohloppi Lake. I thought that if I started from Epilänkatu, after encircling the lake I would come back where I began, supposedly…
And I started full of excitement, breathing the fresh air provided by the trees and coming upon with many species of mushrooms along the way. Afterwards I found a small harbor where I stayed just looking to the ducks in the lake and the people who were hanging around.
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| There are pathways all around the lake |
Then I continued with my jogging, following the path but after 10 minutes I realized I had encountered a road (and not the place where I started). I decided go to the left, but after 5 minutes I found a cross street and a feeling of confusion appeared. I asked some people who were waiting for the bus and luckily they spoke English. I was 3 kilometers away from my goal, and it was in the other direction. Never had I ran as fast as that time, since I wanted to arrive home as soon as possible.
Finally, not only did I reach my 5 kilometer goal, but I succeeded in breaking it and reaching 8. And well, Finland has more challenges for me and I am planning to find more paths while the weather allows to do it.
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| Pier by the beach, people come here all the time during summer |
Paola, Exchange student from Mexico, studying Environmental Engineering at TAMK.
Text: Paola Israde Burrola
Pictures: Paola Israde Burrola
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A year in Finland
I didn’t know what should I write about my year in Finland as an Exchange student, so I decided to talk a couple of some of my experiences during that wonderful year.
When I first arrive in Finland, I had no idea about anything, how would be people there, what do they eat/drink, how do they behave and so on. So when I was in Tampere, I decided to take a bus to the city center and explore the “new” city, but during this process, a “small” problem happened, the bus didn’t stop here I was standing, which left me confused. Later on I found out that I need to raise my hand, so the bus would stop for me, even when only one bus passes on that bus stop. Finally I got to the center city, where I just started to walk around, looking around all those funny/strange names for me. During that walk, I realized that Tampere center had many coffee shops, more than I have ever seen in any other place, so there came my first thought about Finns, “They love coffee”, and I was right, they do love it. Learning one of the firsts words I’ve learnt in Finnish, kahvi.
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| Famous "munkki" in Pyynikki observatorion tower cafe, check it out! |
One of the experiences that I was waiting for was the winter, the truly winter of Finland, and why on Earth would someone be enthusiastic waiting for the winter? Well, for one simple reason, I’ve never seen snow before. At first I thought, “ok, I’ll probably freeze to death, but it’s worth trying.” Since I’m from Brazil, anything less than 10 degrees is cold, so how about -20 degrees?
After some months of waiting, the snow finally came, and it was unbelievable how beautiful it was, and it wasn’t as cold I thought it would be, probably I got a little bit more used to the cold after those months in Finland (or it was just the hot cup of coffee that keep me warm).
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| First snow in Tampere. |
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| My first skiing lesson. |
Finland, where you become a coffee addict and try things you thought you were never able to do.
Mateus Engels Henke, 21, Brazilian.
Text: Mateus Engels Henke
Pictures: Mateus Engels Henke
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Event Innovation - a WOW Experience!
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| Participants of the intensive course together with Pirkko Varis in Lomasaari, Virrat |
We spent one week in Tampere and Virrat, Finland in fall 2014. The coordinator of the Nordplus Nordic and Baltic Business Innovation Network and the intensive course “Business Innovation Focussed on Experience-based Products/Services”, Senior Lecturer in Marketing Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Finland organised for us the programme. Altogether 26 students and 8 staff members from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Norway joined the intensive week. From TAMK, Finland students Veera Hahtala, Jukka Hartikainen, Jonna Hurmansalo, Jenni-Maria Korhonen, Marika Ropanen and Mihail Kastrunis took part in the course.
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| Assignment from Suomen Hopealinja Oy |
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| Assignment and the coordinator Pirkko |
On Saturday we had a welcome session with some teambuilding activities and we could get acquainted with each other and spend some time together. On Sunday we did a sightseeing tour in the city of Tampere and got familiar with the ships of the company Suomen Hopealinja Oy (Finnish Silverline Ltd.) in the harbour as part of our assignment. The tour included a visit to Pyynikki Observation Tower with a view on Viikinsaari island.
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| Danish students on top of Pyynikki Observation Tower |
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| A view to the Viikinsaari island |
After the sightseeing tour we spent some time in Tampere and thereafter travelled to Virrat where we had accommodation in wooden houses by the lake in Lomasaari.
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| Proposal approved! |
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| Accommodation in houses by the lake in Lomasaari, Virrat |
On Monday morning we had presentations of all the countries and study programmes taking part in the course. We also followed a presentation on “Get the message across” given by Vidar Alvarstein from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, School of Business and Economics. We were divided into teams and we were given the assignment from the company. The aim was to suggest events and services to be offered for various customer groups during the summer season. It was also a wish that we give suggestions for marketing communications mix for various customer groups.
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| Some members of Finland team |
On Monday afternoon we worked in teams at Virrat campus of TAMK. We had ideation process and sessions withJanita Saarinen from Idema Oy and all activities were related to the assignment. We also could visit Virrat attractions and the harbour of Virrat. On Tuesday and Wednesday we worked hard in our teams and finalized our ideas. We also delivered our reports and presentations by the deadline.
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| Team idea generation on the lake in Virrat |
On Thursday we travelled from Virrat to Tampere where our presentations took place at TAMK main campus. All teams did great work. On Thursday evening we had a closing ceremony and dinner. We congratulated the winners, thanked the organisers and all participants, took a lot of pictures and headed to the city centre to continue our last evening together. On Friday we left Finland with all wonderful memories.
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| Presentation by Tuuli, Marika, Indré, Christian and Daniel |
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| Audience including judges MonikaDidžgalvytė, Christian Hammerich, Kristo Krumm and the company representative Jutta Lenander preparing for presentations |
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| The happy winning team Madis, Caroline, Marion, Jonna, Rokas and Mihail |
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| Norwegian students on top of Pyynikki Observation Tower |
Students from UiT The Arctic University of Norway, School of Business and Economics, Tromsø
Marion Knutsen:
I will remember the week as a place where networking, friendships, knowledge and long-life experiences were made, as cliché that sounds. The teamwork between the students/teachers from different national backgrounds gave me several impressions that I had not considered in advance, and in lighted problems and solutions in different perspectives. I learned strengths and weaknesses in me, as well as in other members of my team, and then we made the “result” work smoothly together. I also learned different idea generation tools, how to make creative minds just blossom with interesting ideas, with guidance of a professional coacher. These tools I’ve already imprinted in my daily study routine. We got excellent service from the bus companyYkspetäjä Oy, Lepikonmäki-yhtiöt including finding the lost items. Pirkko, I want to say thank you for your effort for this course, not just on my behalf. One word summary: Illuminating.
Emil Skoglund Ellefsen:
I had a wonderful time and I learned a lot. Thank you so much for everything you did to make sure we had a good experience.
Daniel Valla Villmones:
I have only good things to say about the Nordic and Baltic Business Innovation week. My goals before I started the course were simply to make new friends and challenge myself, and I managed to fulfil each goal and even more goals than my original ones. I’ve made new international friends that I’m sure I’ll run into at a later stage of my life. I also managed to challenge myself, I really put my soul into the idea we created. Being on course also made me realise the importance of teamwork. Back in my home country I usually work by myself, because that is what I’m used to. I would also like to mention that the free time activities also were quite fun. Now that I’m looking back I would like to thank you Pirkko for the existence of this course, I’m sure I’m not the only one who is grateful.
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| Estonian students and staff members Anneliis and Kristo in Tampere |
Students from Tallinn College of Tallinn University of Technology, Business, Estonia
Jonas Grauberg:
Some sentences about our happy time in Finland. The whole week was not only about the project that we did. It was about getting to know different people from different countries. Working in a team with different people was hard, but it was really interesting to see how people approached the topic that we were given. All in all the environment we had in Finland was superb. I would really like to thank everyone who participated in the program, because this whole week was about great people and personalities. And as always. Is nice, wawaweewa.
Riin Marii Jõgis:
It was a great opportunity to meet other foreign students. Nordplus teaches a lot about teamwork and communicating with different people. Instead of hard work it felt like a vacation. Happy times!!!
Tuuli-Marie Soomann:
This programme was an amazing experience to meet different people and have a very good time together. It was the best week of my university life so far. This experience gave me new good friends, extraordinary ideas and positive energy. I definitely will recommend this programme to everybody.
Madis Kerna:
It was an awesome experience. I met new cool people. They came from different countries and difference was seen by people. The best thing was the organisation. It looked like we were on a vacation, but we did work also. I had in Virrat every day sauna and we had good times in fishing. Great experiences.
Kati Kuustik:
Everything was great and I liked it. People were nice and it was interesting to work with foreign students. Organisation and living places were super!
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| Lithuanian student team |
Students from Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Economics and Management, Lithuania
Edgaras Kerševičius:
This project for me was a chance to get complex knowledge of foreign business and cultures. Unforgettable people and peaceful atmosphere helped me to solve the project tasks and spend a brilliant time in Finland. Thank you a lot for everything!
Ieva Kinčiūtė:
It was a perfect project which allowed to incorporate international ideas and advised a real company the best solution to a problem. It was a useful international experience, because I had a good opportunity to improve my English speaking skills. I also met many new people from other Baltic and Nordic countries. Although I met many new people, I appreciate that the trip helped me to get to know my Lithuanian friends better, too. Moreover, I visited a new country, Finland. Everything was organised really well. Thank you very much!
Indrė Vitkutė:
In my opinion, this project is contributing to empowering young people to become leaders of the future. Young people had enough potential, brilliant ideas and deserved to be recognized. All teams planned big goals and created very good offers for the company, more than we thought was possible! As well in this way we inspired and motivated ourselves to think beyond our limits. I believe it was a very good opportunity for us! We all are sure we are ready to do better than we ever could! And it is what this project showed to us!
Text:Estonian, Lithuanian and Norwegian students
Photos:Monika Didžgalvytė, Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Economics and Management, Lithuania
AnneliisTomingas, Tallinn College of Tallinn University of Technology, Business, Estonia
Pirkko Varis, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Pirkko Varis, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland
The following institutions are members of the Nordplus Nordic and Baltic Business Innovation Network:
Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Business, Finland
The University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Engineering, Odense, Denmark
Tallinn College of Tallinn University of Technology, Business, Estonia
UiT The Arctic University of Norway, School of Business and Economics, Tromsø, Norway
Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Economics and Management, Kaunas, Lithuania
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Busy time for TAMK Global Education
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Mark and Julia present at Bangkok Educa Conference |
TAMK Global Education has had a busy few weeks promoting the programs of the university and raising its international education profile.
The month of October started with a trip to Tallinn, Estonia for a visit to Tallinn Technical University to discuss and explore possible areas of collaboration. There are several areas of follow up and we are optimistic about the possibilities ahead.
Bangkok
Next stop was Bangkok, Thailand for Bangkok Educa Exhibition and conference. Thanks to some excellent preparatory work by Her Excellency Kirsti Westphalen, the Finnish Ambassador and her team at the Finnish Embassy in Thailand and Kai Tuorila from FinPro, this was a very worthwhile trip. The trip was notable for the genuine collaboration among the Team Finland delegation. Julia Sergeeva from TAMK Global Education gave delegates an insight into the range of education services that TAMK could provide to help support Thailand in its development. There is currently a lot of interest in vocational education which is currently under developed in the country. Julia’s presentation highlighted the areas where TAMK could help improve this.
Mark Curcher, program director of 21st Century Educators presented the program to an interested audience who were keen to hear about this established international teacher development program. A high level meeting with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Education Ministry discussed how Finland could support teacher professional development. Over the months ahead TAMK Global Education will be working with the Embassy and FinPro and a Finnish commercial E-Learning enterprise, Skilltize, to explore the market. TAMK and Skilltize have also been invited to co-author and present a paper at The Eleventh International Conference on eLearning for a Knowledge-Based Society in Bangkok in December.
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Team Finland at Bangkok Educa with Her ExcellencyKirsti Westphalen, the Finnish Ambassador |
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A meeting with Her Excellency the Ambassador and the Bangkok Ministry of Education |
With almost no time to repack the team were then off again, this time heading West to New Orleans (or ‘Norleans’ as it is pronounced by locals) for the AACE E-Learning 2014 conference. This annual international conference brings together around a thousand delegates from 60 countries to present and to discuss innovations and developments in educational technology and E-Learning.
The first task faced by the team was when Mark was asked at very short notice to introduce the opening keynote speaker for the conference. The first presentation session for the team was a showcase session where a poster developed by Julia, Mark and Essi Kannelkoski was displayed and discussed with conference delegates. Later the same day Julia and Mark co-presented the range of programs that TAMK can offer to the international education community. The next day saw Julia present a paper she had written on the adoption of E-Learning in Russia based on some research that she undertaking. She was excited to have some high profile attendees in the audience such as Prof Jon Dron of Athabasca University, Canada. The extended question and answer session following Julia’s presentation was a reflection of the interest and engagement she had engender in the audience. Prof Dron was complimentary about her presentation.
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Mark introduces the Keynote speaker on the first day of the E-Learn conference in New Orleans |
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Julia presents her paper at E-Learn New Orleans |
The conference also saw Mark being invited to join the Executive Committee for E-Learn conferences for a three year term and so he will be playing a major role in the planning and organisation of future conferences. Julia’s abilities were recognized by her joining the Special Interest Group (SIG) which is focused on E-Learning in emerging and developing countries.
Raising TAMK Profile
Having travelled thousands of kilometers across time zones and airport transfers, it has been a pretty intense few weeks for the team. This continues at the time of writing with Dr. Carita Prokki represents TAMK in the Middle East in Oman and Qatar. Information on that trip will be provided in a future blog blog post.
It is true to say that the name and reputation of TAMK as an international provider of high quality education programs has been raised from Bangkok in the East to Hawaii (there was a large delegation from Hawaii in New Orleans) in the West. The stress of travel has brought the team members a few coughs and colds, but there is no doubt that this is a small price to pay for the very real promotional work being undertaken. Look out for future updates.
Mark Curcher, Program Director, 21st Century Educators
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A great visit to further strengthen our collaborations
Between the 17thand 21st November I spent a week with many colleagues from TAMK using an Erasmus + Training exchange. As part of an ongoing collaboration where we have been discussing a variety of opportunities, my visit was specifically based around improving my knowledge of how TAMK (where Erasmus exchanges are successfully embedded in the university culture) implements the Erasmus programme and how they administer it. At Staffordshire University, we have always participated in Erasmus exchanges but have lacked a central overview and direction due to a variety of reasons and contextual issues. The central administration of Erasmus + exchanges has recently moved under my remit so it provides an ideal moment to learn key lessons surrounding the implementation of the programme to allow us to further build on the way in which we engage with Erasmus.
Before I had even arrived, I was already learning signs of good practise with the professional and efficient communication provided by Matti Pietila in explaining my proposed schedule, hotel and travel advice and some history regarding Tampere. When I did arrive, Matti came to meet me with a warm welcome and we continued where we left off with our conversations when we recently met in Prague at the EAIE conference.
The schedule involved meetings with all the key people involved in providing an excellent service to both incoming and outgoing students and staff through Erasmus exchanges at TAMK.
Overall, the visit has been excellent and particularly useful for me to learn good practise in Erasmus administration. We have many areas of common ground; one in particular is either ends of the issue of attracting UK students to engage in exchange. It seems we can both work together to show these students the benefits of exchanges which will hopefully lead to a balanced and sustainable exchange in the future. The visit has helped to validate areas I was already implementing whilst also giving me some new ideas. I hope also that I was able to add a slightly different perspective to your work which you may have found useful and hope to maintain this mutually beneficial exchanging of experience and knowledge into future work.
More than anything, it was a great pleasure to meet such nice people who gave up their time when I know how busy they are. You are all a credit to TAMK and I look forward to welcoming your staff to Staffordshire in the future.
In particular I would like to thank Matti for developing an excellent schedule for my visit and for ensuring I found my way to each meeting.
Thank you all again.
Text: Adam Hall, International Progression Partnerships Manager, Staffordshire University
Picture: Matti Pietilä
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Local collaboration is the key to international impact!
Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Tampere University of Technology (TUT), the University of Tampere (UTA), and Police University College (POLAMK) comprise a dynamic and regionally and globally connected network of expertise. Each higher education institution in Tampere has its own area of expertise but they work in close collaboration to form one of Finland's most attractive and multidisciplinary consortia for education, research, and regional development called Unipoli.
The Unipoli agreement was already signed by the universities in 2006 but it is nowadays stronger than ever. The purpose of the agreement is to establish closer ties between the institutions, support efficient use of resources, and promote development of the city to an international hub of expertise. The Unipoli collaboration focuses on five strategic areas which are education, internationalisation, research, development, and support services.
Especially the network’s collaboration in international matters has many functional forms. Unipoli offers cross-institutional studying opportunities for incoming students, which means that a foreign student of TAMK can select courses taught in English also from the other Unipoli universities. There is also a broad selection of services for international students, such as a Friend Family Programme and a Mentoring Programme. As regards incoming teachers and staff Unipoli offers possibilities to see and experience the HEIs in Tampere broadly.
It is also in Unipoli’s interest to work together with the local companies as much as possible. And in practice this means that we yearly organise several events where international students and employers can meet and learn from each other.
The Unipoli cooperation was developed to support the international impact of higher education institutions located in the Tampere Region. And in my opinion we have certainly achieved the goal. I look forward to seeing what the future will bring and we have several new development ideas in mind. One of them is to create a Tampere Summer School brand together!
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To find out more about the Unipoli cooperation please see http://www.unipolitampere.fi/
Text: Kirsi Tolvanen, Head of International Services
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Leadership, not only Management - Visit to Coventry University, UK
Coventry University has gone through a massive change during the past 6-7 years from a recruiting university seeking for students into a university that is especially chosen by the students. The university received the title University of the Year for Student Experience, 2015. The title Modern University of the year was given to it two times in a row for 2014 and 2015. These acknowledgements were given by The Times and The Sunday Times based on national League Tables for university rankings in the UK.
We had an opportunity to interview students from Qatar, Oman, Saudi-Arabia and three students from different parts of England. What especially impressed me was what the students said about their university. Their message was the same as the message we heard from the leadership: Coventry University is an excellent place to study because of excellent teaching (“teachers are helping students to learn”), excellent student support, good facilities and the multicultural university community.
As Coventry is now the top university for student experience it needs to look into developing its research activities to move up the League Tables. Again the university has set a stretching goal and is aligning the leadership and management processes for reaching this goal. There is no wishful thinking. There are clear plans and procedures to follow this new chosen path. Money is invested, support is given to staff. Based on what we saw, heard and experienced, I am certain Coventry University will, again, be a different university in five years known for its excellent student experience AS WELL AS it´s world class research.
Text: Aura Loikkanen, Director, Higher Education Services
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STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY EMBRACES CLOSER COOPERATION WITH TAMK
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| Visit at Burslem pottery |
EU Erasmus funding for teacher exchange is a great thing. It offers you a possibility to go for an exchange practically any European country. See the world with EU Money!
But when the exchange period is only few weeks away the stress and agony begin to grow exponentially and eventually you blame yourself of ever even sending the application. A week off your regular work means that the weeks before and after the exchange are much more packed than usual. At the same time you have to arrange your timetable, prepare lectures you need to give and find out facts about Finland in case somebody would ask questions like: how’s the unemployment rate in Finland? So why bother?
Sometimes you won’t even get where you wanted to. This happened to me this year: instead of an international week in Nice, France (nice weather!) for certain reasons I ended up in Staffordshire, England (not so nice weather!). Staffordshire University warmly welcomed me but the teaching arrangements took time, and when I set up for the journey I still had no precise teaching program. I had a fear that maybe I was not that welcome after all.
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| At Burslem pottery |
I was as wrong as I could ever be. I got the warmest welcome by the staff of the Business faculty. Already the day I arrived I gave an ex-tempore lecture together with another visiting professor from Belgium, which was a very unique experience. During the week I had several inspiring meetings with local colleagues and met brilliant students, who even took me to a field trip to introduce their project with a local pottery firm, famous Burslem. I did give several lectures, too, but some that I had prepared had no use. Maybe next time.
The most memorable event was, however, attending the inaugural lecture of my host, Professor Jon Fairburn, about ‘How and why Staffordshire should engage with Europe’. Inaugural lecture is a prestigious occasion where a recently nominated professor gives his first public speech to a very authoritative audience. And in his speech Jon presented TAMK as an example for his university of how to engage with Europe.
Stoke-on-Trent, where Staffordshire University is located, has rather similar history with Tampere. Both are old industrial cities which have lost their original industry base and now have to cope with the economic change. Stoke’s economic wealth was originally based on coal mining and pottery. Coal mines are long gone and the amount of potteries reduced to a fragment of what it used to be. Today Stoke is economically in much worse situation than Tampere. Jon’s opinion is that their community has much to learn about how Tampere has re-invented itself, for instance by converting the old factory buildings to business, culture and entertainment centers. He seemed to have several ideas about joint projects in mind. It is worth mentioning that they have been very successful in getting EU funding for their projects!
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| Professor Jon Fairburn giving inaugural lecture |
Jon also emphasized that TAMK’s model of student- and teacher exchange and our capability of arranging as many as 8 international weeks per year are something Staffordshire University should learn from. Even though I have absolutely nothing to do with building such a good image about TAMK I felt quite proud being introduced to the audience that night.
So I have accepted the fact that the sun of South France was not meant for me, and feel very inspired in finding out what kind of joint projects we could do with Staffordshire.
Text and photos: Tuula Andersson
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Amazing traineeship in Finland
Hi guys! We’re students of European Civil Engineering Management from Poland. We’re on 4th year of studies and now we’ve time devoted to training. We wanted to use this time usefully so we thought of applying to the trainee exchange.
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| Here we are! Our laboratory of new generation concrete in Poland. In the front, from left: Mateusz, Paweł. |
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| First stage of our trip: Train from Szczecin to Gdańsk |
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| Hmm... |
First week we spent exploring the city by walking around. We were surprised how beautiful Tampere is: renovated, old buildings in good condition, a lot of water and a pretty flora, landscapes with rocks and lakes – this all made that we fell in love with Tampere!
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| View from the Observation Tower |
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| Raatihuone - the City Hall of Tampere on Keskustori (Central Square) |
We are doing our training in a construction company in Tampere, where we explore technology of civil engineering and gain the necessary experience. Work starts at 7 o’clock, and finishes at 3:30 pm. We are very satisfied with the work culture and approach to the safety of workers.
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| At work… “but first, let me take a selfie!” |
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| Working on the construction site |
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| First snow in Tampere |
Take care.
Mateusz (Matti) & Paweł (Paavali)
Text: Mateusz Bozek and Pawel Wozniak
Pictures: Mateusz Bozek and Pawel Wozniak
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In event management, you have to embrace the change and have a positive mental attitude!
In order to see close you need to go far sometimes.I was privileged to go to United Kingdom to do some benchmarking in two different universities. I was mainly interested in event management and coordination, marketing, communication and service culture. I am pretty new as event coordinator, but have 10 years of experience in Marketing and Sales in international business world and 10 years of work experience at TAMK as Service Coordinator in R&D. I wanted to learn good practices about event coordination and event management in the university context and environment. Organizing events is about project management, people, team work, communication and marketing, premises, technology and about putting the pieces of puzzle together to get the whole picture, the service. Both universities in UK found the graduation party as one of the most important event, but they organized many commercial events as well.
Here are two descriptions about event management. What is event management?
“Event management is the co-ordination, running and planning of all the people, teams and features that come together to create every kind of event.”
“Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of large scale events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, formal parties, concerts, or conventions. It involves studying the brand, identifying the target audience, devising the event concept, planning the logistics and coordinating the technical aspects before actually launching the event.”
PMA = Positive Mental Attitude
It is all about the attitude in services and about team work. People who have excellent communication skills and talented in emotional intelligence, are needed to work in different kind of events. You should find different kind of skills to your teams. Positive attitude shows far and gives you the opportunity to get endorsements to your company and events. Take care of your customers and deliver the service customer needs and wants. “You have to embrace the change” said the event and conference manager of one university, who has been working in the same university for 37 years! What a great attitude! Yes, world is changing rapidly and we cannot stick to old habits and patterns, but change and adapt to the new circumstances with the world. He also said: “People buy people”, which means it is all about people, trust, attitudes, personal selling and communications.
Branding
I am personally really interested in the branding of events. In both universities in UK, all events are clear sub-brands for the university and this is visible in all marketing material and signs. It is easier to sell a clear brand with the image and identity than just some kind of events. This is going to be homework for me and my colleagues. TAMK has many events, but we are still developing the branding.
If you are our partner, customer, student or staff member and you are interested in organizing an event at TAMK, please do not hesitate to contact me anytime through ursula.helsky-lehtola@tamk.fi. Let´s meet, face to face, because it is all about people and positive attitude.
Ursula Helsky-Lehtola
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A Hint of Japanese Culture in Finland
In October 2014 we were glad to have seven students and their professor to visit us from Shikoku University. This wasn’t the first time for the professor Yuki Kataoka, actually it was already the 5th trip to Finland with different students. It was the second time for me too, to guide them around Tampere.
My name is Eveliina Anttila, I am third year social services student here at TAMK. My duty for this week was to arrange program for our visitors. They wanted to see Finnish social services from many angles, so we had a tight schedule. It’s not easy to show everything in just one week you see! But gladly I got lots of help from the teachers Ulla-Maija Koivula and Tapio Salomäki, thank you!
Our visitors arrived on Saturday 18.10., and they had few days to explore Helsinki and Tampere by themselves. Our program started on Monday 20.10. with a tour around the main building of Tampere University of Applied Sciences. The building was new for the professor too; on their last visit the school of social services was still located at Pyynikki. On their first real visit they got to know about the Finnish elderly care at one of the dementia home of Sopimusvuori Association.
Tuesday started by taking a bus to Hervanta. We headed to a meeting point for Immigrant women which is called Naistari. There we had a nice breakfast and info about their work. In the end we made together some origami and have a lot of fun!
We also visited Monitoimitalo 13, which is a youth house in the city center. There we had an opportunity to get to know youth work is done in Finland. Even though the communication was a little bit challenging, the conversations were productive. For example, we had a nice conversation about Japanese video games they had there! ;-)
On Wednesday our quests were with Ulla-Maija Koivula. They visited a place for preventive child welfare, which is called Toimela and in the afternoon they tried TAMK’s own dark cafeteria organized by young persons from the Association for the Visually Impaired.
Wednesday evening I had planned social evening for the students and their professor. It happened to be my birthday, so it was logical to have a party, right? I had already made some makaronilaatikko, which is similar to American macaroni & cheese. And for the dessert, of course I had cake, this time it was apple pie with some candles on it.
Our quests wanted to offer something themselves too, and my kitchen suddenly was full of laughter and joy. They made us rice triangles and rice flour balls, which were seasoned with Japanese flavors. And would this visit be complete without the extraordinary souveniers? Of course not. That is why we had dried squid and fish plus plenty of Japanese sweets and snacks. After we all were full of eating, there were birthday song and more souvenirs to give. I also got a birthday card which is still placed on the door of my fridge. Thank you for that!But the week wasn’t over yet. On Thursday we headed to Nuori Kullervo. Nuori Kullervo offers apartments and support for youngsters on the edge of the adulthood. We had nice info, tea, coffee and Fazer chocolate candies! There were a lot to ask, but we had strict schedule, which told us to move to the next place, which was Iltalinjalla –project.
Iltalinjalla –project is a free time place for intellectually disabled people. We had a little bit free time there and we used it by making some origami again! Here’s a few pictures from Iltalinja:
Our last day together was Friday. We planned it to be a visit to A –guild, which is supportive work for people with intoxicant background. After A-guild information moment, we made a trip to the backyard, which had a fire place and a nice lake view! There we grilled some sausage by Finnish style and ate bread and drank juice. We had so much fun and great time, although it was cold.
And to sum up this week, this was my second time to host our Japanese student on their visit.We had a busy week with many places to visit. I can’t fit all the stories in this blogtext!
We were all tired on Friday, but it was still worth it and I hope that our quests enjoyed as much as I did! I got an invitation to visit Japan someday, and I think I am going to use that opportunity! ;-)
Text: Eveliina Anttila
Photos: Eveliina Anttila and Ulla-Maija Koivula
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Teaching staff exchange in Zwolle, the Netherlands
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| Some international week guests on a city tour by bicycle taxis |
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| Students in a workshop |
In addition to teaching sessions, we international guests could enjoy the special programme organised for us by Jamilla ter Steege and her team. For example, we had the chance to make a guided city tour by bicycle taxis and this was a really special experience for all of us.
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| Pirkko and Prof. Dr. Lars Brehm from University of Applied Sciences Munich in Waanders In de Broeren |
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| Happy students in the end of the international week |
Text: Pirkko Varis, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Pictures: Prof. dr. hab Ewa Oziewicz, Head of The Department of International Economic Relations
Institute of International Business, Faculty of Economics, University of Gdańsk, Poland &Pictures: Prof. dr. hab Ewa Oziewicz, Head of The Department of International Economic Relations
Jamilla ter Steege, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands
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International atmosphere - BE CURIOUS, GO ABROAD!
It's that time of year again - applications for student exchange in the academic year 2015-16 are flying into the database by the minute (deadline 1st Feb), chat service is busy with all sorts of chatter, and parter universities materials are available for browsing in the main lobby. Info desks have blasted videos from partner universities in the lobbies and all the buzz is positive. :)
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TAMK has been steadily growing the percentage of students who spend an exchange semester or a training period abroad during their studies. Most students go to Europe through the Erasmus+ programme, but some venture even further. The only unconquered territory is Antarctica, but that may be only a matter of time...
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Rhodesnow is just one of the companies that visit TAMK or promote training placements for students. With an impressive 1000 openings for trainees in the summer of 2015, they held a presentation to a keen audience at TAMK today. The process is quite easy and flexible, so why not spend a summer where the sun always shines? TAMK supports students with Erasmus+ grants, if the training is accepted as part of your degree!
Did you miss the presentation and would like to secure a training placement? Check out the flyer and email Ms Mikulenaite at work@rhodesnow.com
More info on grants and applying for TAMK students HERE (study abroad) and HERE (training abroad)
Text & Pictures: Piri Hiltunen, TAMK International Services
Some leaflets are still printed... not everything is online!
TAMK has been steadily growing the percentage of students who spend an exchange semester or a training period abroad during their studies. Most students go to Europe through the Erasmus+ programme, but some venture even further. The only unconquered territory is Antarctica, but that may be only a matter of time...
GabrieleMikulenaite, a recruitment specialist from Rhodesnow, showing the hotels where hospitality students train
Rhodesnow is just one of the companies that visit TAMK or promote training placements for students. With an impressive 1000 openings for trainees in the summer of 2015, they held a presentation to a keen audience at TAMK today. The process is quite easy and flexible, so why not spend a summer where the sun always shines? TAMK supports students with Erasmus+ grants, if the training is accepted as part of your degree!
Did you miss the presentation and would like to secure a training placement? Check out the flyer and email Ms Mikulenaite at work@rhodesnow.com
More info on grants and applying for TAMK students HERE (study abroad) and HERE (training abroad)
Text & Pictures: Piri Hiltunen, TAMK International Services
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Visitors from the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania
TAMK International Services had a pleasure to welcome two colleagues from Romania on 2nd of February 2015 to visit the TAMK main campus. The reason for this visit was to create links between TAMK and ULBS. The visitors were Mr Silviu Nate and Mr Dacian Popa. ULBS has 23 000 students and more than 300 partner universities all over the world.
During the visit Romanian colleagues met Ms Kirsi Tolvanen, Head of International Services, Mr Riku-Matti Kinnunen, International Coordinator for Engineering, Technology and Natural Resources and Ms Riitta Vihuri, International Coordinator for TAMK School of Business and Services.
One interesting detail about Mr Popa needs to be mentioned. He studied at TAMK International Business programme during 2004-2007 and he still has tight links to Tampere and Finland.
Visitors’ impressions about TAMK were very positive:
“At Tampere University of Applied Sciences we met a dynamic and open team for promoting academic internationalization. Visit at TAMK was a real pleasure to observe a successful combination between academic vision for preparing future generations by providing practical support and educational infrastructure at the highest level.
The relatively similar volume of TAMK’s and ULBS’s ERASMUS+ mobility, study visits, and International Weeks represent excellent prerequisites for future collaboration between our universities.”
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Text: Kirsi Tolvanen, Silviu Nate and Dacian Popa
Photo: Krista Merikoski
During the visit Romanian colleagues met Ms Kirsi Tolvanen, Head of International Services, Mr Riku-Matti Kinnunen, International Coordinator for Engineering, Technology and Natural Resources and Ms Riitta Vihuri, International Coordinator for TAMK School of Business and Services.
One interesting detail about Mr Popa needs to be mentioned. He studied at TAMK International Business programme during 2004-2007 and he still has tight links to Tampere and Finland.
Visitors’ impressions about TAMK were very positive:
“At Tampere University of Applied Sciences we met a dynamic and open team for promoting academic internationalization. Visit at TAMK was a real pleasure to observe a successful combination between academic vision for preparing future generations by providing practical support and educational infrastructure at the highest level.
The relatively similar volume of TAMK’s and ULBS’s ERASMUS+ mobility, study visits, and International Weeks represent excellent prerequisites for future collaboration between our universities.”
From the left: Riitta Vihuri, Dacian Popa, Silviu Nate and Kirsi Tolvanen
Text: Kirsi Tolvanen, Silviu Nate and Dacian Popa
Photo: Krista Merikoski
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The International Week for Research, Development and Innovation - Workshopping and networking “People in the main role!”
The fourth International Week for Research, Development and Innovation is going on at TAMK Kuntokatu Campus on 9.-12.2.2015. In total 20 staff members of higher education institutions from Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and UK are participating the week. Here you can see some pictures from the week:
The workshops of the week concentrate on three different themes:
- Design of future Services
- Low carbon economy and energy efficiency
- Digitalisation and Industrial Internet
The aims of the workshops are to find common topics of interest and turn the new ideas into international project proposals for obtaining project funding. Workshop teams are led by TAMK´s inspiring leaders: Aki Korpela, Kari Kallioharju, Tarja Tittonen, Seija Pajari-Stylman, Petri Pohjola and Juho Jaakkola. The working in the teams is very intensive with people who you haven´t met before, therefore lots of motivation and a strong team spirit is needed to get good results. After the workshops all active participants are rewarded with relaxing sauna evening!
Here you can find more information of the IWRDI: http://iwrdi.tamk.fi/
Text:Ella Kallio and Ursula Helsky-Lehtola
Pictures: Josefiina Kemppinen and Ursula Helsky-Lehtola
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Sustainability in Tourism
This is a one-period course for TAMK IB-Tourism students and for exchange students as well. The atmosphere has been truly international, since majority of the group are foreign students from many different countries all around the world!
What have we been studying there? Our teacher, Ms Heli Leskinen, has introduced us more deeply to sustainability in tourism – ideally it should not harm environment, economy and society of destinations, but it should support them. The concept itself seems very hard, nearly impossible to achieve, but it is something necessary for the future of destinations and also for the industry itself.
As our first, “warm-up” project, we worked in groups researching all the possible tourism impacts and trends in chosen destinations, as well as thinking of own suggestions how to improve the current situation. This gave us even deeper insight to tourism issues.
Joint kitchen facilities at the Dream Hostel
Our second project was done for a real company – Dream Hostel Tampere. In order to get inspired and get to know more about what can a hotel do to be more sustainable, we first visited Scandic City Hotel in Tampere. Scandic is a leading hotel chain in sustainability in Nordic countries and we had the great opportunity to talk to the local manager about their actions and plans.
Rooms for up to eight people
Friendly warm reception
TAMK Proacademy
1.Did you learn anything new? - ”Yes definitely. We already knew something about the subject but we learned the definition of sustainability better.”
2. How did you like the teaching method? - ”It was great. It was good to have the theory first and then put it in practice.”
3. How was the overall experience? - ”Yes it was very interesting and also fun to do something really different from a normal day. Which was really interesting was how multicultural today was and how many more viewpoints we got to our discussions."
Exchange student Mary Papadimitriou says:
I have really enjoyed my time here and especially the courses. The Sustainability in Tourism course with Heli Leskinen has been a tremendous opportunity for me to learn more things on the field of Tourism. I specifically liked the Dream hostel task and the Proacademy experience during this course. They really helped me understand the meaning of sustainability in hospitality management and they actually helped me to be make more sustainable choices in my everyday life.”
Text and photos:
Sara Sahlakari, Anne Marie Dvorakova, Mary Papadimitriou
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