Category: In English

1. Plan, plan, plan

Balancing your personal and student life is not easy. Since studying and working are already challenging tasks on their own, finding time for both of them can be overwhelming, especially if you have family to support. Get a personal planner or calendar and plan your schedule carefully. Writing things is not only a good way to plan, but also a way to relieve stress. Seeing things written will give you a sense of purpose to replace the sense of suffocation.

 

2. Don’t stress if you fail a test

Everyone flunks every now and then and it is nothing to be ashamed of. If you had a bad exam, don’t worry! The Finnish university system is forgiving and allows you to retake exams without losing course progress. If you already passed your exam, you can even aim for a higher grade on the next exam opportunity.

 

3. Don’t be afraid to mingle

Interacting with your fellow students is not always intuitive, especially if there is a large gap in years. At the University, interaction is more straightforward as you all have similar goals, such as passing the courses. In settings that are more informal, things might get trickier. You have presumably been there and done that before; however, it doesn’t mean you can’t still hang out with other students and party. You might even end up having a good time and making many new friends.

 

4. Don’t be afraid to say no

If partying is not your thing or you are otherwise occupied, you can also say no to parties. Even when your friends are going out to rock this city to the ground, if you’re not up for it then it’s better to live to fight (read: party) another day. Alternatively, you can also find student groups that fit your interests, such as board games, climbing, singing, and martial arts.

 

5. If you do say yes, be wary of alcohol

If you do party, remember: a drink or two can relieve some tension. However, 20 beers, 10 jägerbombs, and a bottle of ‘jallu’ will very likely kill you; and if you are (un)lucky enough to survive, you’ll have deal with the dreaded and legendary many‑day hangover. An 18‑year old can recover in a day, but anyone above 25 will experience a living nightmare.

In Finnish.

Uniresta’s Campus Shop at Linnanmaa is closing in October. From January 2018 onwards, the shop’s premises will serve as the location of a new juice and smoothie shop operated by Juvenes-Yhtiöt.

According to Kaija-Liisa Silvennoinen, CEO of Uniresta, lack of suitable new premises at the Linnanmaa campus is the reason for the shop’s closing.

”We were keen on looking for new premises at the campus area, and were making enquiries. The university asked us to contact SYK Oy (University Properties of Finland ltd.). Their response was that currently no premises are available.”

Seppo Wiik, property manager at SYK Oy in Oulu, notes that there are no premises vacant that would be suitable for a shop specifically. It is not worthwhile to establish a shop in too remote a location.

”There could be room in the upper floors of the west side of the campus, but on the first floor, along the main hallway (väylä), there is no room. We will let Uniresta know if suitable premises turn up. Unfortunately, this is the situation right now.”

Campus Shop sells for example office and paper supplies, small gifts, course books and entrance exam books, as well as the university’s own branded products. Furthermore, the shop has been selling snacks, such as coffee, tea, sweets, salads and sandwiches.

Campus Shop will be open till week 42. The shop is scheduled to close down on Friday 20.10.

”Of course, the decision to close down the shop is a pity. We have received a vast amount of feedback from our clients as well as questions regarding where one will be able to buy pens for exams, or small gifts when needed,” Silvennoinen says.

Paper and pens can be bought at the campus in the future as well. Juvenes-Yhtiöt is not going to open a campus shop of their own. Instead, Café Hub is to sell office and paper supplies, such as pens, erasers, folders and notepads. In addition, the selection is going to include greetings cards. Books are not going to be part of the selection, says Katja Holm,  campus- and event manager from Juvenes-Yhtiöt.

”There has not been a decision concerning gift items. I can drive the idea forward if there is a demand for them,” she says. Furthermore, sweets are going to be included in the new juice and smoothie shop’s selection.

According to Holm, the current plan is to offer paper supplies only in Café Hub.

In April, the University of Oulu decided to end the tenancy concerning the premises of Campus Shop (formerly Paperikauppa, ”Paper Shop”).

The reason for terminating the tenancy agreement was the future need for more restaurant capacity as the Oulu University of Applied Sciences moves to Linnanmaa campus.

According to Kaija-Liisa Silvennoinen, the shop has been working in Linnanmaa since autumn 1973, and before that, in the city centre.

 

Translation: Tiia Kokko.

New tech everywhere

The two campuses of the University of Oulu will receive some nice IT upgrades.
Both Linnanmaa and Kontinkangas will have an electronic laptop borrowing service called Optima Locker, touchscreen operated information screens, and small calendar displays next to most lecture halls to help in reserving spaces.
Content from University’s social media, newsfeed, and current events are already displayed on the huge screens at the Central Hall. Keep an eye on these, as during the autumn they should show even more interesting content for students.

New year, new restaurants

While the good old restaurant Medisiina still operates over at the Kontinkangas campus, there have been major changes at the Linnanmaa campus with the change of the restaurant service provider from Fazer to Juvenes.
From the beginning of September, food and coffee will be served in restaurants called Mara, Foodoo, Hub, Napa, TellUs, Foobar and Kylymä, along with Uniresta’s Kastari at the administrative end of the campus building.
The future of the Campus Shop, the place where you can get some books, small necessities like pencils, and various snacks, will also be decided during this autumn.

Studying 24/7

Good news for all you night owls: soon you can study whenever you want on the campus! The University will be introducing electronic access keys allowing you to enter both campuses around the clock. You can order your own keycard after the beginning of September from shop.oulu.fi.

New web store is here

Not all changes are larger than life. One small but eagerly awaited improvement is the opening of the web store of the University of Oulu back in May. Should you fancy anything from a coffee mug to a comfy sweater with the University’s logo, head over to store.oulu.fi.

Renovations come and go

The Oulu University of Applied Sciences is relocating two of its campuses over to the Linnanmaa campus by the year 2020. Both the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Education are therefore forced to relocate, as the UAS will be moving into the northern end of the Linnanmaa campus building. Planning and designing of the new spaces has been anything but straightforward, but finally the lecture halls, the guild rooms, and the cafes have found their right places. The new spaces must of course be renovated before the relocation takes place, meaning plenty of noise and dust in the air. And if that’s not enough, the facilities for architecture students are still being renovated, but that process should be completed by the end of the year.

 

Translation: Kalle Parviainen.

Trying to overcome the horrendous obstacles of having to talk to complete strangers about something seemingly unimportant sounds like quite a quest. Especially for Finns, who are not exactly known for their great small-talk-skills, it can become extremely difficult to break the mould.

Not seldom, lecturers adjust the requirements for group work because Finnish students are just too uncomfortable to bond with strangers and sweat over solving problems together. Forcing them would not really help, either: The social anxiety grows in stress situations, and the student ends up even lonelier than before.

Bear in mind that Uni-life is not just about the hard skills you signed up for, no – you’ll gain much expertise in the soft-skills-sector, and an important part of that is surely how to build networks and maintain relations.

Teamwork is not a rare encounter when starting work life, and acquiring and sustaining connections might be crucial on the job hunt. So why not take the start of a new era as an opportunity to practice your people’s skills?

Easier said than done, you might think. But it really doesn’t need to be that hard. Challenge yourself, but don’t overwhelm your capacities. If you are an anti-social loner who doesn’t know how to keep up a conversation, hitting a party all by yourself might not end well for you.

Take baby-steps! Start with the person sitting next to you. Talk about relevant things; discuss something from the material, for example. Ask questions! If you don’t know how to ‘blabber’, or you don’t really want to, find out more about them. Maybe they are just as shy as you and glad you show interest? Once the ice is broken, conversation will start to flow. And you’ll be glad to have a partner in crime when you miss a class and need to borrow some notes.

Joining any kinds of student or sport clubs is also a good start. Especially in bigger groups it can often be easier to engage in casual conversation, because the focus is not on you. And while you’re planning an event together, or playing a board game, interaction happens almost by itself!