News in English

Student housing troubles

Toas surprised by number of exchange students

It is increasingly hard for students to find accommodation in Tampere. All of Toas´s about 8,000 rooms and apartments are reserved with almost 4,000 new students queuing for accommodation. At the moment, a student in the queue will receive accommodation in the beginning October at the earliest. For the most popular locations, studio apartments near the city centre, queuing times are rarely under year and a half.

“The housing situation is worse than it has been in years. It is influenced by the renovation of Mikontalo in Hervanta which keeps housing for several hundred out of use. In addition, we have couple of hundred more exchange students than usually", explains Timo Lehto, CEO of Toas.

The City of Tampere owns two local student housing companies, Pirkan Opiskelija-asunnot Oy and Kiinteistö Oy Opintanner, but their combined housing capacity of 2,500 is also fully reserved. Students queuing for accommodation from the city-owned companies are looking at a wait of two months for rooms in shared apartments and at least year and a half for studios.

The best way to secure accommodation for the beginning of term is to look for rentals in the private sector. Tamy can help with seeking private sector rentals, as they maintain a list of private rentals available for students.

“If a student is unable to find accommodation, Tamy offers temporary accommodation at least until the beginning of October", reminds Tamy´s Housing Project Secretary, Laura Lindeman.

Student discounts announced on September first

The Opiskelijan Tampere -project (Student´s Tampere) has gathered student discounts from almost 200 companies in the Pirkanmaa area.

All the companies participating in the project offer some kind of discount for students.
In return, the companies get their contact information on the project website at www.opiskelijantampere.fi. Opiskelijan Tampere -stickers on the doors of companies will help students recognise companies that participate in the project.
The project has attracted many companies and small and medium-sized companies have been especially interested.

The project has been gathering partners during summer and the provided discounts will be announced on the project website on first of September.
The project will be showcased to students on a campus tour 3.-10. September. The tour will stop in the University of Tampere main building lobby on Wednesday 5. September at 10-14.

Problems with library email notices

Approximately a hundred customers of the University of Tampere library did not receive overdue or arrival notices in the end of June and beginning of July. The malfunction was caused by updates made to the library computer system.

Regardless of the malfunction loans overdue at the time are fined normally. The library will not fine customers who did not pick up their reservations because of the malfunction as email is the only pick-up notification.

Student travel cards need updating

All students with Tampere City Transport travel cards need to update their cards by the end of September. Without the update the travel card will change in to a normal adult travel card after September and the price of travel will rise accordingly.
To get the travel card update a student must display a valid student card or a certificate from their school stating that they are a student there and for how long. Students 30 years or older must also display a decision stating that they have been granted student financial aid.

Tamy´s phone numbers change

The Student Union of University of Tampere (Tamy) will give up their old landlines around the beginning of September.

The General Office phone nuber 03-223 0215 will stay the same, but all the other landline numbers will be replaced by mobile numbers. The old staff mobile numbers will stay the same.
By replacing the landlines Tamy expects to save over a thousand euros per year.

At the moment, the phone numbers are only available on Tamy´s Finnish website www.tamy.fi under Yhteystiedot.

Only third of new students are fresh graduates

This summer the University of Tampere enrolled 1,669 new students which is about 16 percent of the 10,278 applicants.

Only 29 percent of the of the new enrolled students were fresh secondary school graduates. The number falls far short from the government-set goal of 55 percent.

The most popular courses were Medicine (840 applicants), Primary Teacher Education (808), Psychology (606), History (539), and Journalism and Mass Communication (502).
Seventy percent of the new students are women.

Fresher Pass and Atalpa Vouchers encourage to participate

This autumn the new students at the university will receive Fresher Passes and Atalpa Vouchers. The pass and voucher are aimed at familiarizing freshers with different student activities and university sports facilities.

How the Fresher Pass is used depends on the different subject organisations but the thing in common is that freshers collect stamps in their passes from different events and activities during the autumn.

By the end of November the freshers return their passes to their subject organisations. All returned Passes are included in a draw with prizes and the organisation that has collected the most stamps wins a night at a sauna paid by Tamy.

The new students also receive an Atalpa Voucher that gives them single free access to the Atalpa sports centre on campus.

Translations: Aatu Lehtovaara