News in English

International students are advised to postpone their exchange period

"I´m in the process of sending out a message to our international housing applicants recommending they either postpone their exchange or study abroad period until the spring term, or cancel it altogether," says Ms. Katri Miettunen from the Tampere Student Housing Foundation (TOAS).

Miettunen has been contacted by 120 international students who are as yet without an apartment. Many of these students have sent their housing applications in good time following TOAS´ instructions and paid the 25-euro application fee. This fee will not be refunded even if TOAS is not able to assign any housing to the applicant.

"You can help improve the housing situation by letting your apartment."

TOAS has a quota of 600 furnished housing units for international students, but this quota has already been used up. “Pirkan opiskelija-asunnot", another student housing firm, has tried to amend the situation by arranging 40 additional housing units for international students.

Each fall term TOAS sets up temporary housing for students who have not yet found an apartment in Tampere. This year this temporary housing is at risk of being over-crowded, since the largest of TOAS locations, Mikontalo, is being repaired. Last year about 50 students had to make use of the temporary housing. There are more available apartments for temporary housing, but this does not solve the problem, since this year students would not have permanent apartments after the temporary housing ends.

TOAS is considering to implement a nightly fee and to raise the deposit payment from 40 to as much as 150 euros, so that students would not use the option of temporary housing any longer than they have to. The nightly fee could be set to three euros, for example. If a student needs accommodation only for a few days, they might not be allowed to enter the temporary housing at all.

Special status of Chinese students raises questions

A group of 17 Chinese students will return to Tampere in the fall to continue their studies in Finnish language. The status of these students is slightly unclear, since they are neither clearly exchange students, nor paying tuition, but something in between. In addition, it seems that only scant information about the situation is available to the general public, which has raised questions.

This situation stems from the preliminary cooperation project between the University of Tampere and the Communication University of China. Within the framework of this project, a group of communication students from Nanjing studied Finnish language and culture with a native Finnish teacher in Tampere during the spring term 2008.

This fall term the same group of students will continue their studies in Tampere. The university Language Center has hired an extra lecturer to coordinate their course schedule. Since this is all paid for by the Chinese counterpart, the undertaking is believed to be a pilot project for contract-based education.

Contract-based education refers to degree education which is sold to students from outside the European Economic Area by demand. This kind of commissioned education enables higher education institutions to earn extra income. Contract-based education was made possible in Finland after a change in higher education law at the beginning of this year.

However, the tailor-made education the Chinese students have received is not degree education. Since the education is not aimed at completing a degree, it is termed "paid educational service".

The Chinese students have been granted the status of exchange students since they are going to take courses in journalism, as well as in the Finnish language. As the Chinese would not be able to follow instruction in Finnish at this point, the Faculty of Social Sciences might be arranging tailor-made courses taught in English for these students.

These tailor-made courses in social sciences might be very useful for the Chinese students, since there are plans for at least a part of the group to continue their studies in Tampere in the fall of 2009. At that time they would most likely become degree students in the Bachelor´s Degree Programme in Social Sciences, which is taught in English. The prerequisites for this programme include previous and sufficient studies in the field.

High percentages of failing grades in large lecture courses

Of the large lecture courses taught at the University of Tampere, courses in law, economics and statistics have the highest percentages of failing grades. For courses in these subjects, it is quite common for about 25 to 40 percent of students to receive a failing grade.

Professor Jukka Kultalahti, the lecturer of the two introductory courses in Public Law, believes these percentages are due to the large number of minor subject students taking law courses. Many students are surprised to learn how precise your answers need to be for passing an exam in law.

"You can rarely get away with an evading and ambiguous answer, and the questions are often formulated as true/false statements."

According to Professor Kultalahti, 25 percent of students typically fail exams for remedial and introductory courses. For other exams the corresponding figure may be 50. Students succeed better in exams that are based on lectures rather than exams that are based on readings.

In addition to the law courses, many students have difficulties in passing the first courses in Statistics. Last year approximately every fourth student failed the very first courses, P1 and P2.

Ms. Raija Leppälä, the lecturer in charge of these courses, does not consider the introductory course P1, in particular, to be so difficult that it should cause such a high percentage of failing grades. She believes that more important factors are skipping class and taking the exam long after the lecture course has ended.

"The introductory course is mandatory for students coming from over 10 different major subjects. The students are too often in their final year when taking the course, probably because of low motivation. Then again, your first year might not be the best time for this course, either," says Ms. Leppalä.

School of Economics had the lowest rate of admissions

Compared to the number of students admitted, the two major subjects with largest numbers of applicants this year were in the School of Economics and Business Administration. Marketing and Business Administration were the most popular majors with an admission rate of only three percent.

Traditionally the lowest admission rates to the University of Tampere have been in social sciences. Last year the most competitive major subject to get in to was Psychology.

Repair of main building closes main entrance for the summer

The mid-section of the university Main Building is under repair, and therefore the main entrance to the building remains closed this summer. Access to the Main Building will be through the passageway between Pinni A Building and the Main Building. Another way to enter the Main Building is through the entrance beside Café Lobby Bar (Aulabaari). Signposts have been set up on campus to guide the way.

The Reception Booth (Opastus), the RegistrarÂ’s Office, the Student Selection Office, the Summer Exam Office and the International Office will move out of the Main Building and operate in the front section of Pinni A Building.

In the next phase of the project, the Auditorium and the lecture halls in the Main Building will be repaired. The repair of the mid-section will be completed by next April, after which the D section of the Main Building will be under repair until 2010.

University alliance gets an executive board already this fall

The University of Tampere, the University of Jyväskylä and Tampere University of Technology will join forces in a university alliance in approximately two yearsÂ’ time. However, the executive board and advisory board of the alliance are already going to be set up by this August.

The student unions elected Mr. Eero Hytönen from Tampere University of Technology to be their first student member in the executive board.

Each university gets to nominate one member to the executive board at a time. The member will be chosen from one of three groups: professors, the so-called middle group (including e.g. full-time teachers), or students. Each group will have one period in office in turn.

Each student union will also get to elect two members to the advisory board.

Translations: Eeva Niinimäki