Towards a more international Turku School of Economics
In regards to internationalization, Turku School of Economics has come a long way since its establishment in 1950 for the needs of the local business community. TSE was ranked among the 75 top business schools in the world in Shanghai Ranking 2023.
It was not until the 1990s that the genuinely international business school could be talked about, as student exchange gained a notable momentum, the first foreign doctoral students graduated, and publishing in international outlets became customary. Today, internationality is an elementary part of all our activities, in education, research and societal impact.
Organisational member
AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business)
PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education)
GRLI (Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative)
EFMD (The European Foundation for Management Development)
Memberships in research networks
SCANCOR (Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research)
EIASM (European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management)
ENSR (European Network for Social and Economic Research)
ECSB (European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship)
Since 2013, TSE has had an International Advisory Board (IAB) of highly experienced representatives of important external stakeholders, including the corporate world and academia. The IAB plays an active role in advising and consulting the dean and the management team on the School’s strategic development and quality improvement.
TSE has four international MSc programmes, two of which are joint degree programmes: “Global Information Technology Management (GITM)” with Tilburg University (Netherlands), Passau University (Germany), and Central China Normal University (Wuhan, China) and “International Master in Management of Information Technology (IMMIT)” with IAE Aix Graduate School of Management (France) and Tilburg University (Netherlands).
Our international MSc programmes, “Global Innovation Management” and “Futures Studies”, have been very popular what regards to student applications. In 2025, we will start our first international Bachelor programme specialised in "Sustainable and Social Entrepreneurship".
The official language of the University of Turku is Finnish, and it has been established to offer higher education in the Finnish language. Nevertheless, we want our graduates to be successful in international labour markets. Contents and language in use in our curriculum prepare them to work globally. In TSE curriculum, 30% of BSc level courses, 60% of MSc level courses, and almost 100% of doctoral education is offered in English.
TSE Research is disseminated via top international journals and policy papers. International research impact is visible in the high and constantly increasing number of citations. During the recent years, over 50% of our refereed research articles have been co-authored with international colleagues.
Research related to internationality is one of the strategic focus areas of our business school. The theme of geopolitics, security and global business was explored in 18 research projects in 2023.
TSE organizes regularly two international research conferences: WORK and Futures Conference.
About 15% of TSE faculty are non-Finnish nationals. About 30% of TSE faculty has significant foreign experience (working abroad for at least one full year).
In 2024, TSE hosted 6 international visiting professors.
In 2024, 150 students study in TSE’s international MSc programmes, representing 32 nationalities.
Annually, around 150-200 TSE students go to international exchange and 130-150 international students come to study at TSE.
TSE faculty works in close collaboration with 500 companies annually in education, research, innovation and development, and in TSE committees, most of them being international or having international operations.
According to the annual report by The Business School Graduates in Finland, around 10% of TSE graduates work abroad five years after their graduation.