News in English

Money a decisive factor in forming university alliance

Contrary to several newspaper articles on the matter, no university has yet signed a contract about the university alliance.

The only thing ready so far is the final report by a specific working party formed to speculate the aspects of alliance-like cooperation. The report features the type of the planned cooperation.

The University Senate of UTA decided in their meeting of 7 February to attach the final report to their action and economic plan for 2008, which is to be sent to the Ministry of Education. The Senates of the University of Jyväskylä and the Tampere University of Technology already came to the same decision earlier. Final decisions will be made in the spring after performance negotiations, when the extent of governmental funding becomes clear. The governmental programme of structural development - which is to be completed in February - will also bear decisions that influence the fate of the Alliance.

When carried out, the Alliance would become the largest academic cluster in Finland. This is hoped to attract both Finnish and foreign students as well as external research funding. The universities would still be independent but the cooperation would affect their tuition, research, and administration.


So far students are keeping watch on the situation, as the plans written into the final report are still vague.

However, a worrying factor in the report from students´ perspective is that the Alliance Senate would not automatically contain reserved seats for student representatives.

Normal working hours do not suffice for secretary general´s job

The Tamy secretaries general have done months´ worth of unpaid work for Tamy. Tamy does not pay for overtime hours and there is no time to compensate them with holidays.

The secretary general´s job description includes everything possible from purchasing a new refrigerator or van to preparing the budget for the Student Union and hosting Yo-talo. The majority of the tasks are so essential to the Student Union´s operation that they cannot be delegated elsewhere or left undone.

This has lead to a situation where the normal 37.5 working hours do not suffice. In this millennium, secretaries general have done hundreds of hours of unpaid work.

"The average working week consisted of around 50 hours. That will help you count how many extra hours were done in three years", says Touko Berry, Secretary General from 2001 to 2004.

The current Secretary General, Kati Rajala, confirms that the pace has not got much slower. At the moment, she is due almost a hundred overtime hours.

"I sure have had enough to do. The autumn was quite hefty with both the election and the budget in the pipeline."

Faculty of Medication may split into independent institutes

The Medical School and the Department of Nursing Science are planned to become independent institutes. The working party planning the change only includes faculty and department management, not students.

"Our current management staff has a very positive attitude towards students and their issues, and the amount of teaching resources issufficient. However, this cannot be taken for granted - if students can no longer make their voices heard, who will look after our interests?" says Tuomas Mäntykoski, a student member of the Medical School Department Council and Tamy representative from the group Medisiinarit.

TheUniversities Act does not guarantee students of independent institutes a third of the representation in the department administration, as opposed to ordinary departments. Therefore, students worry that they will not be able to participate in planning the tuition as efficiently as before.

"The change is made in order to favour students; it will improve education. Students have not yet been in contact with the workingparty, but it is worthwhile that they discuss their concern with the departments´ management", says Professor Markku Mäki, chairperson of the working party.

The change is considered to improve the chances of getting external research funds, as well as to decrease bureaucracy. The departments are planned to become independent institutes in the middle of 2010. All the other departments on the Kauppi campus are already independent institutes.

Prize of student film ticket went up 50 cents

The prize of the Finnkino student film ticket went up to seven and a half euros in the beginning of this year.

Students can neither no longer buy single tickets from the Juvenes bookshop nor from the Tamy office; instead, they have to be purchased as a 30-euro bundle of four tickets from a Finnkino outlet.

Previous single tickets were valid for six months from the day of purchase, but now only four.

"This is a result from a unified policy. This way, our five-ticket bundle is valid for five months, which means a month per ticket in a sense", explains Mari Kallunki, Theatre Manager of Tampere Finnkino.

Näty might join the top university of arts

If Finnish Minister of Education, Sari Sarkomaa, succeeds in her plans, Näty (UTA Department of Acting) might be merged with the Theatre Academy and the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in order to form a top class arts university. Näty is not pleased with the plan, fearing that it will result in the department being transferred to Helsinki.

According to the University magazine Aikalainen, both the Head of Näty, Yrjö Juhani Renvall, and University Rector Krista Varantola learned about the fusion as they read about it in a paper.

"If all the highest art education will be transferred to Helsinki, it will harm the whole country. It will lead to a plethora of freelancers and probably also unemployed actors and actresses in the Helsinki area, whereas other parts of the country will have to do with uneducated performers", Renvall says.

What the heck? YTHS does not serve in English?

The Tamy Greens introduced an action plan initiative requiring YTHS (Finnish Student Health Service) to provide better services in English.

How did you end up introducing this initiative, Chairman of the representative group Vihreä lista, Samuli Kangaslampi?
"It is not based on a single incident; it is meant to generally emphasize the objective of YTHS to provide equally good services for everyone. Tamy and YTHS could think this over together and seek to improve the situation."

In what ways is the service in English inadequate?
"For instance, YTHS local stations´ websites do not contain information on mental health or dentist services in English. As far as I know, there are also improvements to be made when it comes to actual mental health services as well as reception."

Why does the YTHS website not have adequate English service, Senior Physician Aira Virtala from Tampere YTHS?
"The website is regrettably deficient. However, the problem is about to be fixed soon, as the site is currently being redone."

What about your staff´s English skills?
"They could of course be better, but I have never heard of anyone being left without help due to a language problem."