The University of Oulu has decided to improve its Career Counseling and Employability Services by creating a new position specializing in foreign talent. Two of the reasons for this new service are an increasing number of overseas students enrolled in the degree programs and the new public trend Finland of tapping into international talent already located in the country.
At the beginning of the academic year 2020–2021, the University of Oulu extended its Career Counseling and Employability Services. More specialized support for international students will be provided by Angela Suorsa. She is the new International Student Career Guidance & Employability Designer at the University of Oulu.
As a result, there are now two Career Services Specialists at our University. The first is Outi Tolonen, who will focus on local students. The second is Angela Suorsa, who will be offering career guidance for international students and researchers and support in their post-graduation job hunt.
In practice, the new service aims to offer students with international background guidance tailored to their specific needs. The service helps with job seeking, job marketing, integrating into working life, supporting thesis and traineeship placement opportunities finding.
This year’s timetable is already booked with some exciting events, like the new Oulu at your service event this week.
What are the particular attributes of international talents, and what are some of the challenges they face?
According to Angela, job hunting is different for international students compared to local students.
“Although their international background could be used as a strength in their application, many fail to present their competencies in the application documents properly.”
For example, a common mistake made by international talent is that when mentioning their work experience from abroad, they fail to offer a clear picture of the company and the work tasks.
Finnish employers can evaluate the job seeker’s experience from the same country because they are familiar with the education, the expected skills, the working conditions, the legislation, and the requirements. However, it is challenging for local employers to know everything about education systems around the world. They might also not be familiar with the companies in the international arena where students have gained their working experience. As a result, it is more challenging to relate to them and their background.
“Therefore, the employers do not find an answer to the question: What can he do for my company and me? Nor can they answer the question: Do I need him?”
Nevertheless, cultural differences in job hunting and work mentality play a role as well. While a lengthy CV is considered an advantage in some countries, the Finnish employer won’t read one longer than 1–2 pages. The Finnish custom of addressing superiors by their first name might feel extremely impolite for people who worked in companies with a strict addressing etiquette.
“Two years are not enough”
Since the international Master’s level programs last two years, a significant challenge identified by Angela is that students usually do not have enough time to properly educate themselves about the local job market and create a strong professional and personal network.
“When applying for a Master’s Degree, international students already have a more precise idea of what career path they would like to follow. They might also have some work experience. Still, they might have different values and weaker networks, which means they need additional support upon graduation, compared to the local students.”
For the future, Angela would like to see supportive programs developed in close collaboration with the city of Oulu and the regional employment office (Te-toimisto). Such programs could connect the international students directly to the local working market and even help establish contact with the employers on behalf of the students during and after graduation.
Also, more emphasis on the sense of belonging of the international student is needed in the future. The feeling of being valued and worthy will encourage them to be more active in creating their career path and taking part in events designed to help them.
What opportunities does Oulu have to offer to its international talent?
According to Finnish law, the municipalities, like the City of Oulu, are responsible for developing an integration plan for refugees and immigrants. This usually means offering language courses and basic education.
However, as Angela points out, there is a risk that the highly skilled immigrants and university graduates fall outside of the municipality’s integration programs and the free support services that come with them.
As a result, they are not eligible to receive services such as one-year-long intensive Finnish language courses, employability guidance, familiarization with the health care system, or assistance with the paperwork related to other practical dimensions of day to day life in the community.
This can be perceived as a discouraging factor by international talent because they lack the Finnish language skills that would allow them to access more services, as well as an overall understanding of the Finnish systems and society upon graduation.
Oulu at your service (20.01.2021)
The University of Oulu’s Academic Affairs and Counselling Services are organizing an event. The event is being held together with the municipalityon the 20th of January at 14.00. Oulu at your service aims to improve the visibility of the services that the City of Oulu has to offer to international talent.
Oulu at your service is an online event for all international students, researchers, alumni, employees, and their families.
During the event, you will have the opportunity to find out more about the municipality’s public transport and library services, daycares and schools, Finnish language courses, well-being, health, leisure, and entrepreneurship name a few – basically, all the essential information for a newcomer to Oulu.
You can ask specific questions in the chat and get answers from experts in different fields during the webinar. You can also send your questions in advance to and get your questions answered during the event. You can find the detailed program here and the registration form here.
Julkaistu
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Anca M. Catana
Education student, theater enthusiast, nature lover. Curious, spontaneous and ambitious, open for new challenges.
Employment event Löyly will be held fully online this year. In its fourth year the event includes familiar keynotes and workshops focusing on how to find a job in Oulu even in a pandemic.
January has rolled around again. At the University of Oulu, that means it’s almost time for Löyly. Many people have yet to return from their holiday break, but the organizers of the event are already busy preparing. One of them is Katariina Sarja.
“I don’t think we ever considered cancelling the event. Instead we decided to move to an online environment pretty early on”, she says.
Löyly is an employment event aimed especially at international degree students. In short: its aim is to help students find a job in Oulu. This year the corona pandemic has changed plans, but the event is going to be held again, for the fourth time this year.
“Löyly has been a hybrid event even in previous years. That is, we’ve streamed some of the program to Youtube and Facebook. As the corona pandemic hasn’t let up, we’ve moved completely online for this year”, Sarja explains.
Katariina Sarja works as OYY’s Specialist of Events and Associations. Alongside OYY, Student Union of the University of Oulu, are OSAKO (Student Union of Oulu University of Applied Sciences), Talent Hub Oulu and BusinessOulu.
Sarja is organizing Löyly for the third year in a row on the 14th of January. She hopes that despite the pandemic students will find their way to the event once again.
“The event is aimed at international students but I sincerely hope everyone who is interested will participate, it doesn’t matter if you’re not an international student.”
The same event, just online
Apart from helping students find jobs, the aim of the event is also to let businesses in Oulu know about the potential that international students hold. In previous years this was done by holding a job fair with local businesses. This year that’s not possible, but the key parts that make Löyly what it is remain unchanged.
“The constant in Löyly is the core of the program: keynotes and workshops. These weren’t all too hard to move to an online platform”, Sarja says.
This year the event focuses on different aspects of employment, especially during the pandemic. How to make connections and network amidst a pandemic and how to make an impressive video CV are some of the questions the event will answer. In total the one-day-event includes 3 keynotes from different speakers and 2 workshops.
Despite months of preparation, there are still unanswered questions in holding an event online. One of them is the amount of participants compared to previous years.
“I have no idea how many people we can expect this year. There’s a chance that people from outside of Oulu will also participate online, but at the same time this academic year we have fewer international students than usual, so less participants from Oulu”, Sarja ponders.
Instead of fancy stages and lights, the keynotes will be held from the speakers’ own computer screens. Still, there are also upsides to organizing an event virtually.
“We are free of the shackles of physical events, for example having to be in a certain place at the right time, having to come to the campus physically. It will be interesting to see how it goes on the day”, Sarja says.
Inspiring every student
Sarja hopes that the event will go smoothly, but also that the atmosphere will be equally inspiring online.
“I hope that people will have room to compare their own employment stories to Löyly’s program somehow.”
The event will be held next week, on the 14th of January. Sign-up is still open and the organizers hope to reach as many people as possible.
“The start of the year is a good time for anyone to broaden their skills and think about their future work. There is no need to know anything beforehand, you can just show up”, Sarja says.
An online-only event is a first for Löyly, but the organizers think that the future will hold even more online features. Their vision is to continue with a hybrid of online and offline parts but to also strengthen their online presence. The future is largely unknown, but hopes are high.
“I hope that every single international degree student will know about Löyly in the future, that they will know where to go and possess all the skills taught at the event”, Sarja concludes.
Löyly 2021 employment event is organized by the Student Union of the University of Oulu (OYY) and Student Union of Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OSAKO) together with Business Oulu. The event takes place online and consists of workshops and keynote speeches. You can find the sign-up form and the program on the Löyly website.
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Iida Putkonen
Oulun ylioppilaslehden entinen päätoimittaja. Tiedeviestinnän maisteri ja glögin ympärivuotinen kuluttaja. Etsii revontulia, riippumattoja ja juuri oikeita sanoja.
How is it to love someone at a distance? What is needed to overcome such a challenging situation? Based on his and 4 other students' experiences, Pablo Santur explores strategies for survival in a long distance relationship.
And the prince and the princess lived happily ever after. If you have ever been in a relationship, you know how false that cliché ending is. As in life, romantic relationships are full of ups, downs, and twists. In fact, is that complexity what promotes the building of trust in a relationship. In that sense, one of the most difficult challenges for trust between two lovers is distance – to sustain the bond while being apart.
I have experienced it firsthand during my second year of studies. I met my now fiancée a couple of weeks before going to Spain. Regardless of the distance, we kept texting. Then, (neither she nor I remember when) this turned into phone and video calls. When reunited, we briefly spent some weeks together before she had to fly to Italy for her six-month Erasmus exchange. And then, until our long-awaited reunion we kept in touch by creating shared rituals, made agreements, and talked (a lot).
Like me, many other students have dealt with similar situations. In some cases, even with longer distances and times to cover. Trying to understand this experience more deeply, I gathered a group of friends to talk about it. Coming from three different continents, it was interesting to notice some common features, as well as important differences. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, two of them preferred to remain anonymous, so I changed their names and added an asterisk next to them.
Becoming aware of the absences
Being away from your loved one implies to be deprived of many simple but important gestures. Since in my relationship we could not spend a lot of time together at the beginning, when apart we had no memories to connect. So, there were countless moments when looking at each other’s video was not enough. Despite the loving words and expressions, we both were wishing those caresses and kisses expressing our deepest emotions. Because of distance we had to rely on words to express our feelings. And that was quite difficult.
Although Maria was in a relationship for many years before stepping into a long-distance relation, it was also difficult for her to get used to the new situation.
“At the beginning I felt miserable. The physical contact is the most challenging part that I could not overcome. Being away I did not get to see my person day after day, I did not get to wake up next to him and a hug is not a given anymore.”
Knowing how important a master degree was for her, Maria’s boyfriend fully supported her. “We always discussed the sacrifices we had to make for this to happen. Thus, it was just a tad easier to continue working hard for my goal.”
With time, the impact of initial caresses and kisses decreases. However, at distance the absence of such details opens our eyes to their relevance. They give us certainty of being cared for, loved, and respected. Sometimes when facing difficulties, these details can help us to regain balance and keep going forward. In their absence, difficult times become more challenging. This is what happened to Roman.
“When things in the relationship didn’t go well, I thought that taking this step would mean breaking up. There was even a time when we were both considering this.”
The fact that Roman and his girlfriend were away from each other before he came to Oulu turned out to be an important asset, when it was his turn to leave the Netherlands.
“My girlfriend did a half year exchange in Canada. It was difficult talking about her daily life because I only had a fantasy and vague description to picture her life. Insecurities and jealousy can take over you when dealing with many unknowns.”
With that previous experience, they decided to come together to Oulu when Roman moved here. Like this, she was able to have a clear picture of his friends and environment. Also, they created another memory that proved to be useful for the difficult times ahead. “When we are not happy, I also imagine myself with someone else, someone who is close by. Then I can quickly remind myself of our beautiful love story and never act upon these feelings, but they do come around sometimes.”
Jealousy & certainty
A big surprise for me while being away from my love was to realize how our relationship became a dichotomy: together and away. When being together, my day flowed between different activities in which my girlfriend participated in one or more. On the other hand, when separated she was no longer present in my regular activities. Instead, every day I lived a sequence of activities that suddenly stopped when I read her texts or listened to her voice.
Although these surprises were nice, they were also an evidence of her absence. As Roman mentioned before, ignoring the details of the other person’s life gives space for treacherous jealousy to arise. Even if you never ask or comment to your partner about it, the thoughts are still there. And if you don’t control them, they eat you. In that sense, both me and the students interviewed agreed that a main concern when being at a distance was having constant communication with our partners.
Both Maria and Roman talked daily with their partners. This was also the case of Sahan, who talked with his girlfriend in Sri Lanka even twice or more times per day. Unlike the other cases, Nguyen* only talked to his girlfriend twice or three times per week. Besides the different time zones, it was also difficult for him to talk to her because she was doing a lot of paperwork to apply for a master degree in Canada.
“We decided to preserve our space. So, we agreed on specific days and times to talk. That was our moment”.
Although these talks did not shorten the distance between us and our lovers, they proved to be useful to preserve a sense of constant presence of our beloved ones in our lives. This helps to preserve the peace of mind for those who stayed, because of the feelings aroused by not being able to discover that new environment next to their loves. Most of the interviewees thought about that as a must from the beginning. But for Nguyen that was not the case. “We did not plan that much in advance. So, when she was applying to the Master and we were not talking, I sent her photos of some of my activities but I never felt kind of pushed to keep her posted on a daily basis.”
For me and the other it was the opposite. When thinking about that, I think my girlfriend and I kind of played a guerrilla war in which we sought to surprise the other. I used to send her good morning videos for her to see when awakening, while she used to surprise me with loving messages. For Maria it was meaningful to exchange funny memes or videos to make each other laugh. On their side, Roman and his girlfriend found a way to share their passion for music. “We have a shared playlist on Spotify that we listen to. It’s very cool to hear a song that you know resonates with the other person, while you are away.”
The issue of proximity
Surprising and sharing is nice when you are in good terms with your partner. But it is impossible to have a relationship without disagreements. And they will occur because of your individualities. For me, when these crises occur (in plural, there is not only one) they always lead to a decision: Do I accept this? Do I continue with this relationship? Although it may be something difficult to deal with, all the other sides of your connection with your beloved one compensates and therefore smooths the acceptance process.
In distance, this changes. You no longer have walks to the park, movie nights or their warmth next to you at night. There is nothing but memories and the moments you share through the flat, distant, cold screens of your phone or computer (could you imagine how it was in times without a phone? OMG). Because of the context, the relationship becomes fragile, and you don’t want to jeopardize it. In consequence, when I found something that I did not like, I never addressed it directly, but kept it in mind until we could have the time to talk about it in person.
A way to solve this was to agree on periodical visits. In this sense, I did the same as Roman and Maria. In words of Roman: “I knew I didn’t want two years of long distance. My program allows me to do an internship and write my thesis abroad. From the beginning onwards I kept in mind that I will do these in the Netherlands. I also made sure that we were only away from each other max. 3 to 4 months.” This was easy because in all our cases, we were within Europe. But for Sahan and Nguyen it became a more difficult task to overcome.
Sahan, for example, started his relationship when deciding to come to Oulu to complete his Master studies. Unable to visit his love often, the daily phone talks were a way to reassure the certainty of his relationship and keep the promise of getting married alive. Luckily, after becoming a doctorate student, he traveled back to Sri Lanka early this year, turning the promise into reality. “Our wedding and her coming to Finland with me are a long and big dream that we planned together. And now it is true.”
On the contrary, for Nguyen distance became a burden because of the lack of certainty about the future. He came to Oulu thinking of going back to Vietnam, but then his parents suggested that he find a job and stay here. This collided with his girlfriend-plans, eventually creating a situation impossible to overcome. “To join her Master, she had to borrow 20 thousand dollars from the bank and her family. That is a lot of money. When she arrived to Canada, she became more focused on finding a job and producing money. Not having common shared plans made our relationship get derailed. We had several breakups until the definitive one came up”.
Thinking in hindsight
Someone once told me that goodbyes are beautiful because they contain the hope of the next encounter. In that sense, although long-distance relationships are challenging and difficult, they also give us an opportunity to grow and discover new insights of ourselves and our partners.
Although a long-distance relationship may not succeed, it is always an opportunity to deepen ourselves. Despite the unexpected outcome for Nguyen, he still values his previous relationship. “I would not be here if it wasn’t for her. When I was not sure about coming, she told my mom I was accepted with a full tuition scholarship and asked her to persuade me to accept the offer. Now I got a job that I truly enjoy, I am helping my parents and I thank her for that”.
Likewise, this experience helped Roman gain a deeper understanding of himself and his partner. “We created a very strong emotional bond, crossing the boundaries of countries and seas. If communicating is all you have, you truly develop the most open and genuine bond possible. I definitely think it has improved our relationship in ways I couldn’t predict. I have become more open, learned a lot about love and the extent to which it can carry you and persevering even when things aren’t the best.”
For Maria and Sahan*, loving at distance brought insights about how others impact their lives. As Sahan* says: “After a deep thinking and realization, I knew what was important in life and what was not. If someone prays for you, you definitely feel hope and support.” Similarly, Maria values some things more now. “This experience has made me realize the importance of togetherness. Also, that support is a major factor of my success so far. I wouldn’t be able to do what I am doing now without knowing that I have people that have my back, show me their love and want me to succeed.”
For me, after another romantic relationship at distance I became convinced that determination is a decisive factor. It could be long-distance, a pandemic, or a disease. Difficulties are always present in relationships and life. But whatever it is, if both you and your partner are brave and open, you will be able to learn. Even from failures. I realized now how wrong I was of taking things for granted. The ways we found to rely and trust on each other, helped us also to overcome many challenges. And we know there are still many coming ahead. In any case, either with a caress, a discussion, or with silence, we will always find a way to say to each other: I love you.
Julkaistu
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Pablo Santur
Learning specialist in thesis writing mode. Former TV scriptwriter. Foodie. Anime lover. Twitter: @pablodsantur
Even though Finland is often viewed as paradise, being on an exchange doesn’t necessarily mean all your dreams come true. In Thea Yan Pan’s experience, there is also a dark side to happiness and to Finnish society.
Before coming to Finland, I had been expecting to find happiness here. From Beijing, China, I packed my dream for learning, curiosity for a good society, and the hard-gained residence permit, looking forward to starting my masters in the University of Oulu.
Happiness came true very soon after I arrived here. I got to meet and study with an international group of students, listening to different languages, experiences, and perspectives. I went to the river sauna bathing in the last summer light and with spirited friends. I joined friendly and welcoming food gatherings and nature excursions accompanied by classmates, together grilling sausages and drinking glögi.
I lived in very affordable student housing and eat cheaply on campus with friends. I had informative, well-structured classes and many study assignments that were to help me learn. I even had a Finnish family who treated me even better than my own parents. (This is through the Kummi family program.)
All of my basic needs are met. I have a community where I belong, get to study topics I like. Literally the best time of my life. In the past, I never knew what would make me happy. In the past years it was always hard work and struggle that guaranteed my survival and growth.
But life never truly gives you just what you expected.
Even when happiness surrounds you so much. The other side of happiness, agony clings to you.
It is the everyday experiences, shaped by the various social, economic, and institutional structures, through which we observe, understand, feel, and think, which also slowly lead to the development of more complex, nuanced, and even paradoxical ideas and sentiments. This is the case for my happiness experience which developed into other perceptions and feelings after some time.
I tried to talk about these things and make sense of them with my foreign friends, but soon people would get tired of listening to my negativity and tell me to be positive and appreciate the system here, which is better than where we come from.
I started to feel confined by studying with the same small group of people for 6–8 hours each day. The river sauna stopped as the cold dark winter came. Though there is an indoor sauna, I never had the time to go. I found the classes to be too packed that I had no time or space to breathe or think. The stable, warm, affordable meals and homes are comfortable and readily accessible, but they put my life skills at no use.
There are city and social events, but I neither have money nor time to participate. I tried to talk about these things and make sense of them with my foreign friends, but soon people would get tired of listening to my negativity and tell me to be positive and appreciate the system here, which is better than where we come from.
We are expecting a good experience in Finland, and people who live here know and believe that they are in paradise, compared to the other parts of the world. The newcomers and the locals believe in the same story of happiness. They run after happiness, interpret their life through the happy story, and find evidence for this conviction, even though sometimes the reality may lead to feeling otherwise: confined, sad, frustrated.
Then they would need to self-correct the negative feelings, or be reminded of the happy story to feel happy again. It seems as if in the discourse of happiness in Finland, unhappiness is seen as an unreal experience, especially for people coming from the “less developed”, “less democratic”, “non-welfare” countries. I felt as though it is a taboo to talk about or to be unhappy.
Increasingly, my change of perception made me feel agonized and confused.
Is it just because of me and my own problem? Is there nothing wrong with the environment that I am in? My eyes are open every day, wanting to see through the appearance of things. I see the people who want to stay happy, the ignoring or ignorance of problems, and the causes of my agony and painfulness: There is a fundamental lack of freedom in a comfortable, materially wealthy and orderly university environment. There is hidden inequality between the foreigners and the Finnish people.
Why so? As students, we enter a “contract” with the university to go through a sophisticated, planned training process. Students want to get something for their personal goals. The university gets financial rewards for producing people with prescribed qualification standards by the state and corporations. Any activities that transgress or go beyond planned training processes are not encouraged by the university institution. We students are no in a position to define and decide existentially what to do for ourselves, or how to interact with the university institution.
We students are no in a position to define and decide how to interact with the university institution.
As foreigners, and especially non-EU foreigners, we have gone through strict screening process to prove we have good quality, innocent intentions, and financial capacity, and with luck, we enter the country. Many of us are financially depleted after going through all the immigration process and paying for tuition fees. For survival, either we have to find work in a competitive, depreciative, manual labor market, or live with a minimum budget that supports only food, accommodation, transportation and nothing more.
Taking these reflections and analysis into consideration, could it be the happiness is a facade or illusion of reality? The reality differs from the single story of Finnish happiness. Not only there are unhappiness and unequal treatment, there are also exclusion and ‘unfreedom’. Behind the ‘unfreedom’ and inequality are significant structural issues. And those issues are so obscure and hidden, we almost don’t see them or we ignore them. I can’t help but wonder: Who possesses the right to happiness and dominates to discourse? What have we come to since we cannot talk about unhappiness? And even less so to talk about the social realities that often underlie this unhappiness.
To solve the issue, the first step is to break the taboo. The second step is something much bigger.
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Thea Yan Pan
Studying in the Education and Globalisation program. Originally from China and currently interested in collaborating with students from different faculties to make our university more sustainable.
The University of Oulu will be divided into three separate campuses, rector Jouko Niinimäki says. He told us about the city centre campus project on our new podcast.
Along with the city centre campus, the campus of the University of Oulu will be divided into three campuses, Jouko Niinimäki, the Rector of the University of Oulu says. He talked about the plans for campuses in our podcast which was published November 5th. The first episode of the Mitä kuuluu kampus -podcast (‘What’s up campus’) deals with the city centre campus planning of the University. Read this in Finnish.
In the future, the University will operate at Linnanmaa, Kontinkangas and Raksila. The development of the Linnanmaa area and campus by order of the University will still continue after the construction of the city centre campus. All faculties or all teaching is not meant to be transferred to the city centre campus. For example, laboratories and other heavy teaching facilities will stay at Linnanmaa.
The whole interview is now available in podcast servers as well as in written form below.
MITÄ KUULUU KAMPUS -PODCAST EPISODE 1
Host Iina Tauriainen: Welcome to the Mitä kuuluu kampus -podcast (‘What’s up campus’)! This is the Oulu Student Magazine’s podcast, where we will discuss different topics, phenomena and people related to higher education. My name is Iina, and in this episode we will dive into the city centre campus project of the University of Oulu.
And who better to tell us more about it than the Rector of the University of Oulu, Jouko Niinimäki, welcome!
Jouko Niinimäki: Thank you!
Iina: If some of our listeners have not heard of the city centre campus project, could you briefly introduce the topic here at the beginning?
Niinimäki: Well, the city centre campus project came up in a board meeting about a year ago, when we started to think about our real estate strategy and we realized the fact that student admissions are being increased in Finland by a lot, and at the same time the youth in Northern Finland will quickly decrease about 30 % during a span of ten years from 2027 to 2037, particularly in the age group of people who will be coming to the University.
We discovered the fact that if we do nothing for the attractiveness of our University, it can mean bad things from the perspective of the University and of course Northern Finland as well.
Niinimäki: We started to think more about what the students themselves would actually want and especially those students, who are not studying yet. We quickly came to the conclusion that in the past, students have come from rural areas, but recently more and more of them come from urban areas, which means that there are also expectations that this is a city full of social life and that we have lots of services here. That is why we decided that our future’s answer for these questions is a city centre campus.
Iina: Where did this idea come from and why just now?
Niinimäki: Well, it has been somewhat of an age-old dream of the University of Oulu, or of some people at the University. When I first started my job as the Rector in 2005, it was almost the first thing that the Advisory Board suggested to me that the University should be moved to the city centre.
Surely I have also considered this city centre campus as a big change, even though the entire Linnanmaa campus is not moving, but rather we will continue to operate here as well and Linnanmaa will be further developed. But yes, I have considered this as a big change that we are moving to the city centre, but then, through this kind of thinking we arrived to this conclusion, and precisely because our facilities, from the perspective of attractiveness, have reached the state where we need something new.
Iina: What would you be pursuing with this city centre campus, what is the objective that you are trying to accomplish with it?
Niinimäki: Well, what we want from the city centre campus is that the campus would be accessible: you can very easily access it by train, you can very easily access it by taking the bus without having to change between buses, and you can access it with a bike from all around the city. This way it would be easily accessible and in that regard, the carbon footprint of the city centre campus would in the long run be lower than here, where very many people have to drive their cars to get here.
On the other hand, the city centre campus will surely be a new kind of a learning space. We are moving towards this kind of a model of several different locations more and more. In the future, the University of Oulu will have three working circles so to say. One will be home, where independent work will be done, and of course there will continue to be other facilities for independent work here at Linnanmaa and at Kontinkangas, and the city centre as well, first and foremost for the people who can’t or don’t want to work at home. Then there will be laboratories and facilities specialized in experimental work, which will primarily exist here at Linnanmaa and at Kontinkangas. Then there will be the third, so the facilities specialized in communal working, where students, researchers and teachers from different study programs will encounter each other, and where the citizens will in turn encounter the University.
Niinimäki: We believe that with such a central location we can accomplish the same kind of activity naturally to the campus than what for example, the University of Helsinki does in the very centre of the city. I believe that the campus will offer a lot for everybody: to students, teachers, researchers, cooperation partners, citizens, that the location is so central. And when we are building a campus that’s entirely new, we can approach it with the kinds of visions that might not even be possible here. I am surely looking forward with great interest to what we can accomplish, and we are aiming for world-class solutions.
Iina: Yes. You already told us that applications have been accepted and that this is a very topical issue at the moment. What happens next?
Niinimäki: Well, next up we have to determine how many people will be moving there, and how many students will, in their time, be working there. Then there are these different logistic needs related to these people: what kind of a road network is needed, what kind of public transportation is needed, how much parking space is needed. What kind of spaces for bikes are needed, what kinds of biking roads are needed, so we have to quickly change the so far pretty general ideas into something quite concrete.
Niinimäki: I suppose it would be worthwhile to mention the road and traffic infrastructure, since there has been so much talk in the papers that this will be very expensive for the local residents. So it is good to mention that there is a plan for an event arena in the area, as well as two supermarkets and the University, so I really don’t believe that the University would be the main burden that determines the construction of the road network and traffic connections, but rather the University will be involved in using the infrastructure, which’s size and weight will be determined by other measures than the needs of the University.
Iina: In an Instagram poll that our magazine conducted, 64 % of our readers did not support the moving of the campus. Who do you think this move will benefit the most?
Niinimäki: The move will of course benefit most the students who will eventually study there. I truly understand that some are not directly on board with this plan. I believe it is because we have not been able to communicate about this project broadly and sufficiently enough. My own experience from tens of events, where I have spoken about this myself, has been that when we explain the backgrounds and the facts behind this decision, people understand what this is about and they support it.
Naturally when we have a big group of people, we have 3000 staff members and then there are over 20 000 students, so bringing the issue comprehensively forth for such a large crowd has been difficult. Surely this has been presented to the Student Union (OYY) and the groups of people there which we have been able to present it to. But maybe in public communication we have had some difficulties getting our message through, when this has been opposed so energetically and perhaps even systematically, that the opposing messages have drowned the information that we have given about the issue, and that might be one reason why people don’t support it.
Niinimäki: From the perspective of the University, the students who are studying here now, won’t be studying anymore when the city centre campus is ready. So that might also lower the support, that it is seen as a risk, that it will harm the development of Linnanmaa, but the students of today don’t get to enjoy the benefits of it.
Iina: I have to ask, how does it feel to be in charge of a big project like this, that is getting such a negative response?
Niinimäki: To me the response has not seemed that negative, because where I have been talking and discussing about it, the response has been more positive, and there is also a big, enthusiastic group of people bringing this forward. I think that the conversation around the campus topic has been extremely useful to us, to the University and to this project, that is has surely been welcomed. The conversation was bound to happen at some point and it is good that it has been going on since the beginning.
Iina: That is true. What would this move of the University mean for Oamk, which has recently moved to Linnanmaa?
Niinimäki: Well it doesn’t.. Of course Oamk has been aware of this matter and we have done these things together with them. I don’t think that, now that we are building close cooperation with Oamk in our own profile, it is in no way an exaggeration to think that Oulu University of Applied Sciences is going to work in collaboration with the University at the city centre campus in one way or another.
Niinimäki: Then it goes without saying that the fields and the areas that are especially important to this polytechnic community, and the facilities, the joint facilities that we have, they will remain here in Linnanmaa. As well as with the research institutes, I don’t think that when we talk about the University having changed its strategy, that it might not be true.
What is true is that the University has changed its real estate strategy, but the University has changed its real estate strategy so that it can carry out its own strategy, which is to remain as this kind of a large, high standard Northern science university.
Iina: In this part of the podcast we tend to ask our readers for questions on our Instagram and that is what we have done this time as well. There were many questions because there are many interested in this topic. Let’s start with the concerns related to the lack of space. The first question is what happens to the laboratory facilities at Linnanmaa? Are they going to come to the city centre campus as well?
Niinimäki: The laboratory facilities will remain in Linnanmaa. The city centre campus will be a space for learning and and encountering and collaborating and holding meetings. Heavy laboratory facilities are not meant to be moved there.
Iina: Okay. How are opportunities for student organization facilities arranged on the new campus?
Niinimäki: This was the first thing that we discussed with the Student Union, how the guild spaces are going to be. And yes we have promised that guild spaces will continue to exist. We will examine with the construction planning whether it would be possible to arrange such amazing underground guild spaces that we have here. This matter indeed needs to be planned carefully together with students and staff members. And of course it means that appropriate spaces will continue to be available in the future as well.
Iina: That is awesome. In fact, we received another question about it, which is are students going to be included in the planning process?
Niinimäki: Absolutely. Naturally, students are an important interest group and of course we are going to include our students and also try to include high school students, who are those, and maybe middle school students too, who are of that age that they will come here eventually and what are their propositions.
Iina: Yes. Then we have a question based on history. So, 40 years ago we witnessed intense opposition when the University moved to Linnanmaa piece by piece. Now, partially the same people are intensely opposing the move to the city centre. Where do you believe that this change of opinion is coming from?
Niinimäki: Well, I think that opposing things in general is very human, that when we keep up with the same old that we are used to, it is in some way safe and familiar even if it wouldn’t be exactly optimal. A big change is always something that creates threatening scenarios and creates the unknown, and that is why I think that it’s very natural that with these kinds of big projects there are those who want to stick with their opinions even if they were the ones who originally opposed the previous big change.
Iina: Well, we already talked about the laboratories staying here and that there will be activity on several campuses. We have people wondering, that will the student community become scattered on three campuses or will the entire unit of Linnanmaa move to Raksila?
Niinimäki: The entire unit of Linnanmaa will not move to Raksila in any case. A part will move from here and the University of Oulu will continue to develop Linnanmaa as well. I don’t think that scattering students is what we want to do here, but rather now that there has been research saying that most students want to live in the city centre and students want to live near a campus, then of course we have to consider that the idea of the city centre campus is not just being there for some faculties but that it’s a shared city centre campus for the whole university community.
The question is, that how are we going to arrange studies in a way that everyone can get those studies on the city centre campus. We don’t want that a student’s day or a teacher’s day would be scattered in a way that they would have to go back and forth the city centre and another campus, but rather we have to create such solutions where we can operate in a sensible way without that.
Niinimäki: I believe that when we go, when we think about this city centre campus solution, we are making the kind of solution that will tie our hands until 2065, that is how far reaching these investments are. I believe that studying will largely change into more digital and during that time when the city centre campus will crucially affect the operation of the University of Oulu, and I truly believe that the effects will be the kind that those gatherings in one place for a lecture, kind of like naturally, and encounterings will decrease, we will need more and more attractive places for encounters that people will come to for the sake of the encounter. In that sense this city centre campus, which will be easily accessible, pleasant, near services, near quality student housing, it will be a place where we can accomplish this.
Iina: Yes. This has actually been thought of, will the remote studying situation affect the future, is the situation here to stay. Will this have any impact on the size of spaces or something like that?
Niinimäki: Yes it has an impact. This is of course in no way a completely new situation. During the past 10 years, universities have given up I think nearly half of their spaces, generally in Finland, and the use of university spaces has decreased. In the University of Oulu when the city centre campus planning had begun, it was thought that the use of our spaces will continue to decrease and that we can decrease the use of those spaces in a way that the studying and working experience would improve.
In that sense the decrease of using spaces was already the objective at the time. Somewhere at the University we can already see the kinds of phenomena where lectures are being streamed online, and most students at this moment as well are taking those lectures as online streams and only a small part of students attend the lecture in the lecture hall. Surely the conclusion already before corona was such that the time of these megacampuses and massive lecture halls is over.
Iina: Okay. The scattering between three campuses made me think of the campus of Kontinkangas. Has there been any thought of its fate?
Niinimäki: Kontinkangas will also remain. The hospital there is very important, and the fact that we have Dentopolis on the campus of Kontinkangas, where the dental hygienists of the University of Applied Sciences and our dentist students and the patients of public dental care encounter, and that has been an excellent learning environment. Here in the health care district, other than dental care too, it is important to think about similar solutions.
In that sense, Kontinkangas as an operational environment is also a subject for us to consider. The consideration of Kontinkangas can’t wait for the finishing of the city centre campus, but now that we are getting this city centre campus into planning, we have to start thinking about the issue of Kontinkangas. I might think that the city centre campus is an important place for Kontinkangas as well. One new relevant thing that the city centre campus enables is that the students of Linnanmaa and Kontinkangas can encounter each other there. Let’s hope that all kinds of great things will come from that.
Iina: So this sounds like we have a trinity of three campuses and one place for encountering. Did I understand correctly?
Niinimäki: Well yes. Certain laboratory entities have been centered here, and also entities of natural sciences and technology, and at Kontinkangas entities of bioscience and medicine. I dare to suspect that the movement of students and their encountering on the campus is very little in the time management offered by the University. Surely students encounter each other in their free-time but let’s hope that the city centre campus will function as a place for that encountering, and let’s build it that way so that our entire student population from all fields will encounter each other there. You are understanding correctly that the city centre campus will precisely be an environment of encounters.
Iina: Our readers have also wondered how sustainable development is considered in the campus planning?
Niinimäki: Sustainable development is considered in the construction materials and the construction itself in such a way that, at least my own wish is that wood would be used as a construction material and in that way work as a carbon sink. The central location of the building in relation to the where students live will lead to people coming there more by bike and by foot than here on average, and it will decrease the carbon emissions that way, and of course when we build the campus in the framework of sustainable development, we consider our possibilities for energy supply, heating questions and such.
Then there is the interesting matter of energy symbiosis coming from nearby stores or indoor ice rinks and other places. If the neighbour needs cold and the other needs warm, then how can we draw more from that coexistence from the perspective of sustainability. One thing that has been written in the city’s planning reserve, is that along with the stores and the city we must think how we can consider the carbon footprint in the area’s planning.
Iina: This last question is a good way for us to end, which is this: Is the city centre campus project the megalomaniac way of Rector Niinimäki to earn his place in history?
Niinimäki: Well that is certainly not what this is. It is the decision of our Board and perhaps the Rector’s courage would have never been enough to start something like this, but afterwards thinking about how our Board found this matter to be essential and started working on it, I have appreciated that bold decision very much.
Iina: Yes. Thank you so much for visiting.
Niinimäki: Thank you.
Iina: I hope that this episode will clarify student’s thoughts on the matter, because this is a big topic and it’s very understandable if it is not fully understood.
Niinimäki: Let’s hope so and let’s get back to it if necessary, we are happy to talk more about this and its background, or anything. This is a very good way to communicate this matter through you.
Iina: Yes absolutely, and we will return to the topics of higher education in our next episode. Bye bye.
The podcast will return every month with new topics regarding higher education. Stay tuned!
Translated by Saana Haapala.
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Oulun ylioppilaslehden entinen päätoimittaja. Tiedeviestinnän maisteri ja glögin ympärivuotinen kuluttaja. Etsii revontulia, riippumattoja ja juuri oikeita sanoja.
The University of Oulu is continuing remote studies and remote work for the entire spring semester until the 31st of May. There will also be a new mask recommendation starting tomorrow, the 29th of October.
Remote studies and remote work will continue at the University of Oulu until 31.5.2021. The University of Oulu made a decision on the matter today, the 28th of October. There will also be a new guideline for using masks starting tomorrow. Masks are recommended to be worn at campuses for the next two weeks in all public spaces.
The updated information can be found on the University’s website. The Oulu University of Applied Sciences also recommends using masks on campus. They informed students about this on the 19th of October.
The decision to arrange the spring semester’s teaching remotely is influenced by the current corona situation and future predictions, according to the University. The mask recommendation is based on local Oulu recommendation that was made yesterday, the 27th of October. The recommendation concerns the next two weeks, 29.10. to 12.11. According to the recommendation, a mask should be worn in all public spaces indoors as well as public events.
The University’s take on the local recommendation is that you don’t need to wear a mask if you can keep a safe distance to other people or work alone. The University also recommends no events with more than 20 attendees be held between 29.10.–12.11.
Jarmo Okkonen, Human Resources Director of the University of Oulu, told the magazine that the University would inform students more on thursday the 29th.
Earlier the University decided to continue remote teaching until the end of the year. Then Administrative Director Essi Kiuru told the magazine that the University hoped to return to normal contact teaching during next spring.
Oulu University is not alone with its new rulings. Similar decisions have been made in universities all across Finland, for example in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. Masks have also been recommended in universities nationwide.
The University of Oulu originally decided on remote teaching for the second teaching period on the 16th of September. Remote teaching has continued in Oulu since spring 2020. The University opened its doors for the first time since the corona shutdown in August. You can find the latest information on the corona situation on the University’s website.
Julkaistu
SHARE
Iida Putkonen
Oulun ylioppilaslehden entinen päätoimittaja. Tiedeviestinnän maisteri ja glögin ympärivuotinen kuluttaja. Etsii revontulia, riippumattoja ja juuri oikeita sanoja.
