The Opening Ceremony was held in the University’s Main Building for the University community and friends of the University. The celebration included an opening speech from Rector Marjo Kaartinen.
The University of Turku celebrated the opening day of the new academic year on 2 September 2025. The Opening Carnival, where the Teacher and Counsellor of the Year awards were presented, was celebrated earlier in the day before the Opening Ceremony.
At the Opening Ceremony, Rector Marjo Kaartinen highlighted the themes that will guide the University community in the new academic year. In her speech, Rector Kaartinen spoke of community, critical thinking, and academic freedom, which are are closely intertwined in the academic community.
“Research is always conducted together, in one way or another. Research and the teaching that builds on it are born out of interaction, in nearly countless discussions and reviews. Asking questions and seeking answers is at the heart of the academia,” Kaartinen stated.
“Of our University’s values, critical thinking is based on the age-old interaction between teacher and student. It is one of the fundamental principles of the academia. Academic criticism is not about expressing opinions, it is about peer review, and about science and scholarship correcting and renewing themselves. As the value of our University, critical thinking refers to responsible criticism that is constructive discussion based on researched knowledge.”
Kaartinen noted that, despite the fact that research is critical in its nature and at its core, and that one of the central premises of research is its self-correcting nature, the academic freedom is strongly challenged.
“As a university, it is clear that our role is to look after the well-being of our community. Together with other universities, we are participating in a joint campaign by the Finnish Education Employers, the Union of Research Professionals, and the Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities Unifi to promote an inclusive and diverse university. We universities want to highlight that every member of the university community has the right to be treated equally, regardless of their background, status or identity. We all have a responsibility to foster an operating environment where diversity is seen as an asset and a strength and where discrimination, bullying, harassment or racism are not accepted in any form,” said Kaartinen.
Recognitions and awards for University personnel
The Teacher and Counsellor of the Year awards were presented at the Opening Carnival, organised this year by the Student Union of the University of Turku. Read more about this year's awards.
The University of Turku has been awarding the Teacher of the Year recognition since 1994. The recognition aims to emphasise high-quality and research-based teaching and counselling that promote learning and build a community.
The Turku Finnish University Society's awards for distinguished dissertations were presented at the Opening Ceremony. The University Society gave the awards to dissertations of exceptional quality completed during the previous academic year.
The dissertation prizes were awarded to PhD Roosa Wingström (Faculty of Science, Geography) for her dissertation Creativity in the digital age: A Geographical perspective to the creative processes of new media artists and computer scientists; PhD Javad Rajabalizadeh (Turku School of Economics, Accounting and Finance) for his dissertation Chief Executive Officers' Communication Strategies in 10-K Reports via Repetition from Notes to MD&A: The Impact of Managerial Ability, Overconfidence, and Narcissism; to PhD Anna Kautto (Faculty of Social Sciences, Speech and Language Pathology) for her dissertation Domain-General Mechanisms Underlying Individual Differences in Language Acquisition; and to LLD Nea Lepinkäinen (Faculty of Law, legal science) for her dissertation Algoritmiset haitat: Tekoälyn riskit ja sääntelyn haasteet kiihtyvässä yhteiskunnassa.
