With the additional strategic funding of €3.7 million, the University of Turku realises it International Programme that is closely linked to the University’s Strategy.
Minister of Science and Culture Petri Honkonen decided on 20 March 2023 on additional funding for the strategic development of higher education institutions. The share of the University of Turku is €3.7 million.
In addition to the strategic goals of the higher education institutions, the funding of the Ministry of Education and Culture aims to promote one or several key goals in the national university and science policy.
The University of Turku applied for the strategic funding to realise its International Programme. In addition to reaching the University’s own strategic goals, the International Programme supports the realisation of the joint international programme of the higher education institutions in Finland.
Several actions in the International Programme focus on increasing the number of international students, developing the study and career guidance of international students, clarifying career possibilities, and promoting employment.
“Increasing the number of international students has an impact on the higher education rate of younger generations, which is essential as it is not possible to fix the skills shortage only by increasing the number of Finnish students in higher education. The University has also set ambitious goals for acquiring international research funding and especially EU funding,” says Rector Jukka Kola.
The actions that realise the higher educations’ strategy and the strategy-based funding share was mainly agreed between the Ministry of Education and Culture and the higher education institutions in the 2020 negotiation round for the agreement period 2021–2024. With the current funding, the Ministry is allocating unused strategic funding.
Altogether, the Ministry is providing approximately €40 million in additional funding to the universities and €6 million to the universities of applied sciences.