The New Academic Year Was Celebrated on Opening Day
In his opening speech rector Kalervo Väänänen highlighted means which help to guarantee the success of the Finnish universities also in the future. The teacher and course of the year were awarded in the campus event.
The festivities of the opening day started around noon at the University Hill. The bright sunshine attracted plenty of students and staff to enjoy the event.
The new academic year was welcomed on 5 September. The festivities of the Opening Day included an Academic Reception to new students, an Opening Carnival presenting the versatility of activities provided for students by the Student Union and a service at the Cathedral. The Opening Ceremony was organised at the Hall of the Academy Building.
Rector: Universities Must Collaborate to Succeed
According to Rector Kalervo Väänänen, it is fortunate that the universities’ judicial status was changed before the deepening of the recession. The new status of universities unfolds possibilities that the universities must now seize.
Väänänen considers the future prospects of the University of Turku to be good.
–This is not based on the state of the finances of our university, which is luckily stable as well, but on the ever improving study and research credits of our students and staff.
Universities must find ways to improve the quality of teaching and research without substantially increasing the amount of funding from the state, says Väänänen. According to him, the means to do this are internationalisation and strengthening collaboration between universities.
–It is essential that we start thinking about our educational solutions on a national level. Now is a great opportunity to start developing joint study programs in collaboration with one or more universities.
Väänänen also suggested means which could make the internationalisation of universities more concrete. According to Väänänen, educational export should be developed in addition to researcher and student exchange programs.
–The Parliament should quickly make changes to the University Act so that it would be possible to develop international educational export. At its best, Finnish educational export could create thousands of high expertise jobs to Finnish experts with language skills, in the fields of teaching and research. It is difficult to imagine that it would be of anyone’s advantage to ignore this opportunity.
Teacher of the Year: Student Feedback Should Be Utilised More
From the left: Teacher of the year Jussi Tapani and course unit of the year winners: Clinical Instructor Outi Kortekangas-Savolainen, Teaching Nurse Minna Wuorela and Bachelors of medicine Linus Törnqvist and Jetro Tuulari.
The teacher and course unit of the year were selected by the Rector and the Council Chair of the Student Union by the proposal of the Council of Educational Affairs and the Student Union.
The award of teacher of the year was given to the professor of Criminal law Jussi Tapani. Tapani is also the Vice Dean of basic degree studies of the faculty of law. He was awarded for his encouraging teaching which incorporates plenty of interaction and discussion. He has a solid knowledge about the newest scientific perspectives and the latest decisions of criminal law.
Tapani encourages his colleagues to participate in studies of university pedagogy because they bring confidence to teaching.
–However, the most about teaching I have learned from the students, says Tapani, and highlights the comprehensive significance of student feedback.
Student feedback is also highlighted at the level of the entire university. In October, systematic feedback is collected from all students who have completed a Bachelor’s Degree during the spring term 2013.
The award for the course unit of the year 2013 was given to an introduction course to clinical skills for which the teacher in charge is Clinical Instructor Outi Kortekangas-Savolainen. The course was planned and executed by the Medical Educational Research and Development Centre (TUTKE) in collaboration with students of medicine. Communality is enforced in the course and the more advanced students are trained to guide the less advanced ones. A versatile selection of methods is used consisting for example of self-evaluation, videoing teaching interaction and a journal.
Dissertation Awards and Commemorative Medals
At the Opening Ceremony held at the Academy Building the Turku Finnish University Society handed out five awards for distinguished doctoral dissertations accepted at the University of Turku during the academic year of 2012-2013. The awards were given out by the Committee Chair of the Society Satu Astala. The awards were given to Hemmo Laiho (PhD), Elisa Närvä (PhD), Liisa Seppänen (PhD), Ewald Kibler (PhD) and Ahmad Ali Ghouri (LLD).
The Rector awarded the following Emeritus Professors with the commemorative medals of the university: Jarmo Hietarinta, Raimo Immonen, Martti Kairinen, Katri Karasma, Annikki Koskensalo, Olli Nevalainen and Jorma Viikari.
Text: HB
Translation: Jenna Sjöholm
Photographs: Hanna Oksanen