Start your summer in the beautiful seaside town of Turku in Finland!
International staff week is an opportunity for colleagues from the University of Turku's partner universities to engage in presentations, networking, and benchmarking.
This year's staff week will take place from 2 to 6 June 2025, with the theme "Success stories in international relations". The application period is now open!
Staff Exchange Week 2025
The international staff week is organized by the International Office of the University of Turku. The main goals of the event are to broaden and strengthen cooperation with partner institutions, facilitate networking, and share experiences and best practices.
This year's programme will encourage you to share best practices with colleagues and to learn about our success stories, such as peer-to-peer promotion, sustainability in international framework and smooth digital mobility processes. Additionally, our social activities will give you the chance to get to know the cities of Turku and Pori as well as the excellent opportunity to get to know the staff of the International Office in Turku and other colleagues from various universities.
The programme is now published!
Please email us at utu-staff-week@utu.fi if you have any questions!
Practicalities
The application period for our staff week was from 1 February until 31 March 2025. Participation was confirmed in the beginning of April. There were 30 places available for our partners (up to two per institution) on a first-come, first-served basis.
Participation in our Staff Week is possible for colleagues working in international offices and for administrative staff working with mobilities in the faculty level.
Please note that we are charging a 100 € participation fee in order to cover some of the event expenses, including four lunches, a traditional summer cottage night with dinner and a trip to Pori Consortium. The payment instructions were provided in the confirmation email in April.
There are several ways to travel to Turku. If you are looking for a greener option, consider taking a train and a ferry! There are direct trains, for example, from Hamburg to Stockholm, and from there, you can easily catch a ferry to Turku harbour.
If green travel is not an option, you can fly to Turku or Helsinki. From Helsinki Airport, there is a direct train to Turku, which also stops at Original Sokos Hotel Kupittaa (Kupittaa Station) if you wish to stay there.
You will find more information on the different transportation options here.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding accessibility on the UTU campus, please feel free to contact us. For more details, visit the university’s accessibility webpage. You can also reach out to our Accessibility Officers for further assistance.
Turku, compact in size with a mixture of old and new, is the oldest city in Finland and a former capital. Turku has a long international history going back to 1229 and is today a cultural and academic hub of its region with an active and international student community of 40 000 students studying in the six higher education institutions in the city.
There are plenty of accommodation options for your stay in Turku. VisitTurku website highlights some of the city's top hotels.
Our 2025 partner hotels are Original Sokos Hotel Kupittaa and Scandic Turku Hotels (three Scandic options). We sent accommodation offers for the confirmed attendants in April.
Previous Staff Weeks
Programme of the staff week held in Turku in May 2022.