News in English

Tuition fees
on the election agenda

Student affairs and education are going to be an important issue in the coming parliamentary elections in March.
Just before New Year Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen stated that a thorough reform of the university system will be the most important goal of the new government. In an interview Vanhanen brought up tuition fees for students who come from outside the European Economic Area. He also said that tuition fees for Finnish postgraduate students are worth considering.
“If tuition fees are introduced, they should be for everybody," replies Timo Lahti University of Tampere Head of Administration.
Lahti thinks that all students should take financial responsibility of their tuition in form of a tuition fees that could be, for example, 1000 euros per term.
“The same sum should then be compensated for the students with a corresponding raise in the study grant. It would increase efficiency."
The National Union of Students in Finland opposes all kinds of tuition fees.

Tamy to debate anniversaries
and political stands this year

TamyÂ’s Council of Representatives might engage in internal political debate this year. The New YearÂ’s resolutions different groups of representatives gave Aviisi readers would take Tamy to very different directions.
The arguments will probably break out between the left wing green group Viva and the business studentÂ’s group Vapaaboomarit. Vapaaboomarit argue that Tamy should not use its mandate to take political stands on issues that do not concern it directly. They will also advocate anniversaries that are open to everybody and held every year.
In Viva’s opinion, Tamy should take political stands more actively, especially in issues that concern Tampere. As an example, they give “the winter oppression of cyclists". And they are against holding open anniversaries every year.

TamyÂ’s Executive Board
distributes tasks

TamyÂ’s new Executive Board has distributed tasks in their first meeting in the beginning of January. Their areas of specialization are as follows: Maiju Korhonen (from the kesk group of representatives): Cultural affairs, Equality, Sports. Henrikki Luoma (Tasy): Academic affairs, Community relations. Maija Mattila (Suuri Kupla): Academic affairs, Employment, Tutoring. Paula Nurmi (PuHu): Social affairs, Subject organizations. Tuure Pitkänen (Vihreä lista): International affairs, Development co-operation, Information. Leena Rautjärvi (Viva): Social affairs, Environmental affairs. Heikki Soininen (Vapaaboomarit): Economic affairs, Business relations.
Simo Autio of Vihreä lista acts as the BoardÂ’s Chairperson. Heikki Soininen was elected as the Chairperson of the economic section.

Fresh graduates
often work for free

The bad employment situation of fresh academic graduates is driving masters into job coaching which in practice means unpaid traineeship. Of those in the Pirkanmaa area who received a masterÂ’s degree last spring, 66 are unemployed. That is 7.9 percent of new masters.
“Fresh university graduates use job coaching a lot. At the moment we have about 20 academic trainees in job coaching," says Jukka Tanhua from the Tampere Employment Office.
Last spring, the academic union Akava estimated that four percent of academic graduates in Finland were unemployed and academic unemployment is on the rise. However, the four percent figure does not tell the whole story as 40 percent of last five yearÂ’s graduates from the fields of art and design, forestry and agriculture, and humanities have been unemployed.

Enquiry states:
university employment should change

If the suggestions in a Ministry of Education enquiry are realized, the public-service employment of university staff will be turned into standard employment. At the moment Finnish universities have staff on temporary employment, standard employment, and public-service employment that is seen to be more secure. The University of Tampere has over a thousand people on public-service employment.
Niilo Jääskinen and Jorma Rantanen who did the enquiry also suggest that universities should be made subject to public law to grant them greater financial and administrative independence. For the moment, universities can not independently sign contracts or own property.

Tamy: the Moon is made of Cheese (Emmental)

In their last meeting, TamyÂ’s Executive Board for last year ruled that the Moon is made of cheese, more precisely Emmental.
The Board also worked hard on other matters. They ruled to demand that the world be taken back to the year 1992 because “it is easier to change everything else in our society than to change the will of politicians to back a rise in the study grant."
A third important initiative was made in the field of regional policy. The Board ruled that three new residential districts should be built in Teisko, Tampere to accommodate the population of Northern and Eastern Finland. The emptied areas should then be preserved for wolves, trees, border jägers, and the Puijo Tower. In addition, the new districts would have a light-rail transit system only for fare-dodgers.

Translations: Aatu Lehtovaara