The Ministry of Education and Culture has granted the University of Turku educational responsibility in electrical and automation engineering. The extension will mitigate the regional shortage of experts and further increase the impact of the University and its Faculty of Technology.
The University Board of the University of Turku decided in September that the University applies for extending its educational responsibility to electrical and automation engineering from the Ministry of Education and Culture. Minister of Science and Culture Antti Kurvinen decided to extend the educational responsibilities of six universities and nine universities of applied sciences. Nearly all higher education institutions were granted the extensions they applied for.
– With the extended educational responsibilities, we can now together with other higher education institutions in the region start to fix the notable shortage of experts in Southwest Finland. The experts we train have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the industry in the region and through it on the well-being of the entire country, says Rector Jukka Kola.
The development of education in electrical and automation engineering is supported by the educational responsibility granted to Turku University of Applied Sciences in the same fields.
The educational responsibility gives the University the right to organise Bachelor's and Master's degree education in the discipline in question. The universities’ educational responsibilities are defined in a decree of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
At the moment, there are 2,000 basic and postgraduate degree students at the Faculty of Technology and circa 350 members of personnel, of whom almost 50 are professors. The Faculty includes the Department of Computing, Department of Life Technologies, and the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
The Faculty started its operations at the beginning of 2021, but technology education has a long history at the University of Turku, as Master’s degrees in information and communication technology as well as in biotechnology have been offered for almost 20 years.
The Faculty engages in active collaboration with regional companies, for example, in teaching, research projects, and examining the correspondence between education and needs of professional life. A good example of regional collaboration are the 13 professorships donated by the regional companies, communities, and cities to the Faculty of Technology.
