Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK)

TAMK doing social responsibility in Namibia

2012-01-31T14:56:00.000+02:00

Students from TAMK Consulting Academy raised money to makecollaboration with students from Polytechnic of Namibia’s entrepreneurshipprogram ProLearning. The aim was to do a social responsibility project to helpand contribute to the Namibian society. We felt that the children are thefuture of Namibia and that’s why we wanted to support the orphen children bydonating school shoes, backpacks and other school necessities plus we gavewashing powder, soap, food and toys. We chose to donate goods to a smallorphanage in Katutura, a township in the capital of Namibia, called Havanachildren home since it only gets support from the church and some other privatedonors.

The children home is a house run by a woman called LinaJohannes, who has taken orphen children and raised them all by herself.Currently the Havana children home has twenty children, youngest being the ageof 3 months and oldest is twenty years. Reason why we chose this particularchildren home was because the bigger orphanages get attention and help moreoften than these smaller ones so we wanted to support this lady and the goodwork she is doing.

We gave a lot of smiles to the childrens faces that day andI can say that it was one of the most wonderful experiences during my stay. Thechildren were happy to have people to play with them and giving attention and Iwas overjoyed that we were given this opportunity to contribute to a goodcause. We also got the attention of two newspapers and one tv-station and theywere interested in students doing social responsibility and we hope that the stories made encourages communities andcorporate sector also to take part and help small orphanages like Havanachildren home more in the future.

A big thanks goes to the students of TAMK Consulting Academywho raised the money, without them this project wouldn’t have happened. Hopefullythe publicity that came out of the project brought some more help to Ms.LinaJohannes and she would be able to support her children in their education andlife in the future as well. This social responsibility project made many peoplehappy and therefore I think it was a success.

Text and photos: Suvi-Tuuli Heiskanen, graduated from TAMK in December 2011

Moi! Kiitos! (= Hello! Thanks!)

2012-01-20T18:59:00.000+02:00

The new exchange students have startedtheir exchange at TAMK.

The first 60 exchangees took part in theExchange Student Orientation on 4 – 5 January 2012. Altogether, there will be130 new students arriving during the spring.

And the new exchange students brought thewinter with them!

AtChristmas, we barely had any snow in Tampere. And now we have some 50 cm andblizzards almost every day!

So the weather is quite different from whatthe students are used to…

Or then not:

-The climate is just like at home, say ValeriyaPozdeeva and Tatiana Geraymovich, who come from Syktyvkar Forest Institute,Komi Republic of Russia, 1000 km northeast of Moscow.

- The education system is very different:education concentrates very much on practice here. In Russia, it is theory,theory, theory. And we have no foreign students in our university.

- We like TAMK because it is so modern. Allwe need is here: computers, printers, cafe. People speak very good English. And nowwe know people from all around the world: Spain, Germany, Mexico, China…

Text and photos: Mirja Onduso, TAMK International Services

Where do our Media students land?

2012-01-14T11:10:00.000+02:00

Jan 9 - Feb 14 application time, international BA programmes of Finnish UAS

TAMK Degree Programme in Media aka Interactive Media Programme IMP:

Application specifications
Home page
On Facebook
#tamkmedia on Twitter
Read about studies and free time activities of IMPs

Degree Programme in Media! But how to answer briefly what do they really learn? Journalism? Advertising? Broadcasting? Multimedia? Print Media? Mass Media?

Interaction Designer
- vision by Ville Salminen

No curt answer here. When setting up this programme we proposed the name would be Interactive Media Programme, but it did not suit the ministry. Interactive media, digital media, hypermedia and multimedia come closer but do not offer a comprehensive answer.

We explain: "The focus of the four year programme is in interactive media content design and production. The students learn about current digital media issues and they specialise in visual design, interaction design or project management." Not exhaustive.

We try: "The main focus areas of the programme are visual design and interaction design. The students work with web services, games, animations etc." This comes closer.

Visual Designer
- vision by Ville Salminen

But how about telling what the geraduated students do? This would illustrate the outcome of the studies. There is however a slight problem here: Our programme is in its third year, and nobody has graduated yet. But no worries, let's look at the titles of the predecessor of IMP, the Media Programme in Finnish.

LinkedIn is a very handy resource for handling contact information. I print the titles of my contacts who are School of Art and Media interactive media graduates to a list, sort it, and here is the result:

The highest frequency of occurrence of titles is (in alphabetical order): 2D Artist, 3D Artist, Account Manager, Animator, Art Director, Consept Designer, Creative Director, Freelance, Game Designer, Graphic Designer, Interaction Designer, Journalist, Photographer, Producer, Product Manager, Project Manager, UX-Designer, Visual Designer, Web Designer.

Project Designer
- vision by Ville Salminen

Owner, CO, Director, Managing Director, Specialist are also very popular titles and quite many have "Senior" before their title.

Cai Melakoski
Head of Degree Programme in Media

Now it't over...

2011-12-22T16:25:00.001+02:00

The time here as an exchange student was really great!

Wenever regretted coming here because we made friends for life. Youprobably will never ever experience such a time, with getting to know peoplefrom all around the world, learning for your lives and simply have fun.

Best regards and hyvää joulua!

Text: Alina, Christin, Sandra and Cathrin, exchange students from Autumn term 2011

Photo: Mirja Onduso

From Prague to Tampere – Virrat – Helsinki

2011-12-20T12:52:00.001+02:00

A busy week? Try one of our international guests’! Jitka Hejtmanová from FAMUInternational, Czech Republic, visited us last week to practice what we preach,exchange best practices with us, that is. International staff exchange at its’ bestis giving as well as receiving perspective to your own work. We got some ideawhat it’s like work at FAMU, and Jitka picked on some of the well polishedpractices we have at TAMK to take back home with her.

As FAMU International is a partner for Art and Mediaprogrammes, Jitka spent a day at Virrat campus with International Coordinator Janne Tauriainen. She was also hostedby Sohvi Sirkesalo at Finlaysoncampus and TAMK International Services at Kuntokatu 3. In addition, for herfinal day in Finland, Jitka hopped on a train to spend it in Helsinki.

Fortunately there was a Christmas menu served atCampusravita restaurant and Jitka got a taste of traditional Finnish Christmasfood such as swede casserole and gravlax. Must have been interesting, but “tasty”was her word. She also explained us the Czech tradition of St. Nicholas, angeland – yes – the devil, a trio that greets the children and treats them withsmall gifts on December 5^th.

Jitka having Christmas lunch

During the week, we had meetings where we discussed about international cooperation between FAMU and TAMK, how it’s working and howit would be best developed. During the visits to Finlayson and Virrat, Jitkagot some hands-on information about the students that hopefully in the futurewill be applying for exchange at FAMU.

Jitka left home inspired, as she said. But also, we got agood conception about the international operations at FAMU. For now, the TAMK InternationalServices will slow down the hostingpart of our work for Christmas to ponder on the ideas and suggestions we gotfrom all our visitors during this fall. We’ll be welcoming next visitors againin – OMG – 2012!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Text: Noora Järventaus, International Services

Photo: Jitka Hejtmanová

Application period for our Programmes run in English start soon

2011-12-15T14:14:00.000+02:00

The application campaign posters are out, this one in front of TAMK
Finlayson campus

Applying to programmes conducted in English at universities of applied sciences takes place through a joint application system. Applying takes place online at www.admissions.fi 9 January - 14 February 2012.

TAMK bachelor's programmes in English:

Environmental Engineering - Bachelor of Engineering
International Business - Bachelor of Business Administration
Media - Bachelor of Culture and Arts
Nursing - Bachelor of Health Care, Tampere
Tourism - Bachelor of Hospitality Management, Tampere

The applicants of Degree Programme in Media must return also the required pre-task by 14 February to TAMK.

All details about applying for TAMK programmes in English
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After all, it was totally worth it!

2011-12-14T10:17:00.001+02:00

Not everything is as perfect as it seems. Thereality is that everything in Finland is insanely expensive, from food totravel and leisure, the money just flies out of your pocket. The language isreally hard to understand and if Google translator is not at your hand you arebasically screwed. On top of that the cold and darkness don’t really help mypessimism. And don’t even get me started on the food – potatoes here, potatoesthere, potatoes everywhere! Also it is not uncommon to see a number of “reallyhappy” Finnish guys with bottles of alcohol in their hands on an early Saturdayafternoon – a hell of a drinking culture! Being a Finn is being hardcore.

But not all is bad. Being the geek I amthere was one thing that really cheered me up. It was the chance to see a StarCraft2 tournament in Helsinki held at DiGiExpo event. My friends and I spent hourswatching similar tournaments streaming on the Internet, and being able to seeit live was extremely exciting.

It was an early morning in November (andearly mornings I don’t like) when I set off on a train to Pasila. I met mybrother there and we went to the site of DiGiExpo together. We were running alittle late and the quarterfinals already started so we didn’t have time tolook around, we just went straight to the tournament.

First Elfi (Finnish Protoss player)competed versus SeleCT (Korean Teran player). It was amazing to see how fastthe hand movement of the Korean player was. Elfi of course didn’t stand achance. Although the tribune was packed and we had to stand, we got lucky sinceafter a couple of minutes a few seats in a front row emptied. In the secondgame of quarterfinals, idrA (Canadian Zerg player) competed versus whiteRa(Ukrainian Protoss player). It was intense and very exciting, two of my friendsare huge fans, one of idrA, the other of whiteRa, and they could see me on theInternet on the stream, being extremely jealous. IdrA naturally won and it wastime to get some signatures for my jelly-friends.

Time for food! More potatoes, but theycouldn’t spoil the perfect day. Soon afterwards the real show started. Thefinals! The tribune was even more packed than before, but we got lucky againand got a spot on the floor, just in the middle. The game SeleCT versus IdrAwas even more intense and unpredictable. IdrA won again, he earned the firstprize of 6000 $! But SeleCT didn’t walk awayempty-handed, the second prize was 3000$. Since the tournament was in Finlandit is only fair that the third prize of 1000$ goes to Finnish player Elfi.

So to sum it up, although Finland is not myideal country, there are bright moments that help me cope with the cold anddarkness of it all. Peace out!

Text and photos: Maša Pelc, Slovenianexchange student in Fine Arts

Media Programme application pre-task online!

2011-12-08T11:00:00.001+02:00

In 2009 they planned a global tenth anniversary celebration of mankind’s presence in Mars.
In 2010 they created a concept for a digital sports game.
In 2011 they designed a campaign to fight overweight and obesity.
In 2012 they will arrange a global 24 hour party before the disastrous astroid hits Earth.

They are applicants of IMP, our international interactive media programme.

Application period for the international degree programmes of Finnish UAS is January 9 to February 14 2012.
For the Degree Programme in Media it is not enough that applicants fill in the online form, they also have to complete and send by the deadline a pre-task with two assignments.

The 60 eligible applicants having most points will be invited to the entrance exam 17th or 18th April, and finally 20 of them will start their Bachelor of Culture and Arts studies at Finlayson Campus right in the centre of Tampere in August.

The focus of the four year programme is in interactive media content design and production. The students learn about current digital media issues and they specialise in visual design, interaction design or project management.
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Download the pre-task
All details about the application process
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Media Programme home
Media Programme on Facebook
#tamkmedia on Twitter
Read about studies and free time activities of IMPs
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Tampere got the first snow

2011-12-07T14:57:00.001+02:00

It finally snowed in Tampere!

We got the first snow cover on FinnishIndependence Day, 6 December. The winter is about one month late.

Text and photos: Mirja Onduso,International Services

New TAMK.Today is now online

2011-11-28T15:35:00.001+02:00

TAMK’s magazine in English, TAMK.Today2011-2012, is now online.

The magazine features e.g:

education export to Dubai
the first International Week for Engineers
the new curriculum of TAMK BusinessInformation Systems
12 upcoming International Weeks / ErasmusIntensive Programmes (IP)

The magazine may be reviewed electrically(online or PDF) at: http://www.tamk.fi/cms/tamken.nsf/pages/magazine.html

If you want to receive printed copies,please contact international.office(at)tamk.fi.

Text: Mirja Onduso, International Services
Photo: Ville Salminen

A visitor from Germany, Hochschule Münich

2011-11-28T11:57:00.001+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had a visitorfrom Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM), Ms Regina Seiberling. She wasone of the well chosen administrative employees at HM who were granted ascholarship to spend a training week at one of HM’s international partneruniversities to gain insight into their field of work in the internationalarena. TAMK was chosen as Regina’s destination due to recommendation ofprevious visitors from HM!

Regina arrived on a cloudy weekend toTampere, but the autumn weather didn’t bother her at all. Quite the opposite,she walked to TAMK from her hotel every morning and relished the brisk breathof air. She enjoyed her stay very much and was really pleased with the greatopportunity to meet so many of TAMK representatives. Big thanks to allparticipants!

Regina’s own field of work includes theduties of the Secretary of Vice President for international affairs as well as VicePresident in charge of research and development, technology transfer,entrepreneurship and quality management. At TAMK, Regina got to meet the Secretariesof the Management, International Coordinators and many others. She spent a coupleof days with Ursula Helsky-Lehtola, the Service Coordinator of R&D andEducation Services as they had much to talk about regarding their duties andcommon interests.

It was a great pleasure to have a visitorfrom HM, which is a popular exchange destination, in particular among thetechnology students. In fact, TAMK offers a double degree programme with HM inthe field of Paper Engineering.

As the cooperation with Munich Universityof Applied Sciences continues, we wish to have more visitors here at TAMK.Thank you, Regina for a nice week!

For further info on HM, click here: http://w3-n.hm.edu/z_englishversion/index.en.html

Text and photo: Noora Järventaus, InternationalServices

Mexican girl in love with Finland

2011-11-24T13:47:00.001+02:00

Culture, people, music, education, art, innovative design and sustainability issues.

Finland is a dramatic change for me, I’m from Mexico and I’m in Tampere as an exchange student in TAMK Media programme for this semester.

The Mexican lifestyle is totally different; the food, education, culture, people, design, arts and weather, that means a huge experience for me in a good way because I’m enjoying being here.

At the beginning was a little hard for me because the Mexican people are warmer than in Finland but I realized that is part of the Finnish culture so it isn’t a problem now, because after you meet Finnish people they introduce Finnish lifestyle to you, for example the sauna, summerhouse, traditional dishes, nature, hobbies and at the same time I have the opportunity to introduce them my own culture.

I think the order in the country is admirably, everything is in the right place and of course the education, music, arts, design and sustainability issues are amazing. Talking about the education, I think a big advantage from the way of government is the opportunity to offer free education and student support because in Mexico it doesn’t exist, our parents have to pay all the education and expenses we need for studying, as a result not all the Mexican people have the possibility to study.

On the other hand, I’m surprised with the Demola projects because offer the opportunity to acquire knowledge and experience in different technological fields to the students furthermore you could get paid for that.

The architecture and design are unique with an elegant style and always considering being friendly with the environment. About the environment and sustainability I love the use of bikes, the machines to recover the bottles and cans and all the green products with innovate design, in other words the Finnish culture shows the awareness of the environment and I really like this issue because in this way is easy recycling and be awareness for everyone.

The winter is coming and I’m glad to experience the Finnish winter because the weather is colder than in my city, which is the highest city in Mexico and the weather during the winter is around -5º C. but we don’t have snow, so hopefully I’ll be prepare with the suitable clothes for enjoy this season.

I could spend much time writing about my impressions and experiences in Finland but I don’t want to bore you. In a simple way I like the Finnish lifestyle, I have found good Finnish friends and definitely if I had to choose again the country for my exchange would be Finland without doubt. Mexico is maybe the opposite in many ways but I’ll be happy when I come back after this amazing experience.

Finally you are welcome to Mexico to experience all the differences by your own!

by Karen Ivette Plata Reyes

Originally posted on http://tamk-artmedia.blogspot.com
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“Cross-Cultural Challenges in Europe” in Lithuania

2011-11-23T12:33:00.000+02:00

I had the possibility to join a round table session at theconference “Management Horizons in Changing Economic Environment: Visions andChallenges”, held in autumn 2011 at Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty ofEconomics and Management in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The round table session was presented by Jean MonnetProject, coordinated by Nijole Petkevičiūtė from Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania).Dr. Egidija Laumenskaitė from Center of Spiritual Education and Meditation (Lithuania)and Dr. Claude Alavoine from IPAG Business School, Nice (France) worked as chairpersonsand moderators. Other speakers in the round table session were André Boyer fromUniversité de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, IPAG Laboratory of Research (France), MonikaDidzgalvyte from Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Olev Tõru from TallinnCollege of Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), Kirsten Zachariassenfrom University of Tromsø (Norway), and myself from Tampere University ofApplied Sciences.

The topics discussed covered several issues, among otherschallenges in intercultural negotiations, leadership and negotiations, interculturalcommunication in projects and intensive programmes, challenges in internationalstudies, and spiritual aspect of management in Europe.

The participation in the session gave many ideas for thefuture. It showed also how difficult it sometimes was to keep the speakers andthe audience focused on the topic, Cross-Cultural Challenges in Europe, and nothave people discuss any possible issues, because the topic would have givenpossibilities to this. Claude Alavoine succeeded very well in his efforts to coordinatethe discussion and keep the schedule given for the session.

In the end of the round table session the words “tolerance”,“communication” and the idea “from competition to cooperation” were expressed tosum up the discussion. Many small groupsof people continued their discussions after the session while having theirlunch break.

Text and photo: Pirkko Varis, Senior Lecturer in Marketing& International Coordinator, TAMK Virrat Campus

CIMO approved TAMK's Erasmus functions

2011-11-21T14:45:00.001+02:00

Centre for International Mobility (CIMO)thanked TAMK International Services for good governance of Erasmus functions.CIMO audited the Erasmus budgets, figures and Intensive Programmes (IP) ofacademic year 2010 - 2011 on 16 - 17 November 2011.

Erasmus is the EU's education and trainingprogramme enabling students to study and work abroad. It also funds cooperationbetween higher education institutions across Europe. The programme not onlysupports students, but also professors and business staff who want to teachabroad, as well as helping university staff to receive training. CIMOcoordinates the Erasmus programme in Finland.

- The big number of TAMK's IPs andInternational Weeks is impressive: TAMK has more of them than any other Finnishuniversity of applied sciences, said Anne Siltala, the head of CIMO delegation.

TAMK coordinates three IP-courses: CREME(Social Services), DIGISOMEMAR (Business) ja RUSTIC (Hotel and RestaurantManagement), and is a partner in 12 other IPs. TAMK International Servicesadminister 33 international mobility programmes.

Siltala said also that TAMK has been themost active institution in the newest function of the Erasmus programme:recruiting professionals from foreign companies to lecture at TAMK. Althoughthe total number of such professionals who have arrived in Finland is small,16, seven out of them have lectured at TAMK, mainly in the School of Art, Musicand Media.

Sanna Tukiainen (left) and Annika Haanpää both did their student exchange in IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria. Michaela Rezová from Czech Republic is an exchange student at TAMK Media programme. They all talked about their Erasmus expereince to the auditors.

Siltala congratulated TAMK for a strategyin which internationalisation is given a high importance, as well as foraccrediting 100% of the studies completed during exchanges.

CIMO wished TAMK would advertise the optionof going for short (less than three months) student exchanges, and also sharebetter the outcomes of teacher and staff exchanges.

CIMO will publish the final report byChristmas.

Text and photo: Mirja Onduso, InternationalServices

Social Service Students in the States

2011-11-14T12:45:00.001+02:00

In June 2011, the Tampere University ofApplied Sciences (TAMK) received 15 students and three teachers from MichiganState University as part of Summer School in International Social WelfarePolicies and Practice programme. In return, six social service students and twoinstructors flew from Finland to the USA at the end of September 2011. Ourmission was to get to know how social welfare system works in the States. Thiscollaboration started a few years ago and, hopefully, it will continue longinto the future. (See: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Finland-Study-Abroad-MSU-School-of-SW-TAMK/253931167966741)

A visit to Grand Haven

Our trip started from Chicago where wespent a couple of days. Our first visit was to the Juvenile DetenionAlternative Initiatives programme (http://www.aecf.org/majorinitiatives/juveniledetentionalternativesinitiative.aspx).This national programme focuses on finding alternative solutions to confinementand securing children a healthy and productive life.

We can highly recommend other visitors tostop by at the John Hancock Observatory. There you can enjoy magnificent viewsover the city.

Aview from John Hancock Observatory

In Chicago, we also visited the Hull-HouseMuseum (http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house.html).The social settlement, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her companions, grewinto a significant contributor in the community. Its services included, forexample, a kindergarten, art and music classes and support for immigrants.

From Chicago we took the train to EastLansing, Michigan. The train was clean, comfortable and on time, and it isdefinitely worth it to spend a few hours on the train where you can enjoy thebeautiful scenery.

In East Lansing, we visited a retirementcommunity called Burcham Hills, Office on Aging, and Department of HumanServices. Burcham Hills (http://www.burchamhills.com)offers assisted living and skilled nursing services for the elderly. Thefacilities were fantastic, but we were quite shocked to hear the cost of livingthere: 3000 – 7000 dollars a month.

The Office on Aging (http://www.tcoa.org)provides services for the elderly as well. One of its goals is to find likelycandidates for a nursing home and give them the opportunity to make the choiceto stay in their own home. Its most famous programme is Meals On Wheels and theservices are no or low cost.

We visited Ingham County Department ofHuman Services. We were told about child protective services as well as adultprotective services. One of the striking differences between the Amrican andFinnish child welfare systems is that in the USA parental rights can beterminated. If the parents do not show enough progress or willingness to makeimprovements, their parental rights can be terminated and their children areadopted.

MichaelPatton lecturing

We also had the chance to attendUtilization-Focused Evaluation Workshop in East Lansing. The instructor at theworkshop was Michael Quinn Patton, a famous evaluation consultant and writer.Evidence-based evaluation is stressed much more in the US than in Finland.Service providers need to defend their work and show results to funders – andwhat could be more compelling than hard-core data and facts.

(http://outreachscholarship.org/Conference/NOSC2011Meeting/Preconference/UtilizationFocusedEvaluationWorkshop.aspx)

In general, wenoticed that the USA is a country of litigation. Much of the decision-makingdone by the Finnish social workers goes to the court in the States. From ourpoint of view, US attorneys and judges hold a great deal of power, consideringhow little they sometimes know about their clients.

Against thatbackground, it was interesting to visit Chance at Childhood (http://chanceatchildhood.msu.edu),a collaboration between social work students and law students at MSU. Studentteams mainly handle custody cases. This gives law students a chance to get toknow the social aspect of custody cases, and social work students get familiarwith the legal issues and the jargon, which can often seem intimidating.

We spent the last three days of our journeyin Grand Rapids where we visited Bethany Christian Services (http://www.bethany.org)and Hope Network (http://www.hopenetwork.org),services founded upon Christian values. Bethany Christian Services handlesfoster care and adoption issues and provides trauma therapy for families. HopeNetwork provides residential care for people with brain injury anddevelopmental disabilities.

HopeCenter

During the course of our stay, we metamazing people who were so generous with their time and effort. We were justoverwhelmed with the hospitality of our hosts. As we Finns know, the Americanslove their cars, but our group now knows why. The distances are much longer,especially in the countryside, and public transportation is not as effective asin Finland. Luckily, our hosts from the MSU (Karen, Amanda and Marcia) were ourdesignated drivers and we got around beautifully in our van.

Our trip endedwith a lovely visit to Grand Haven where we spent the day at the beach in warmweather (80F/26C). Some of us even got a little sunburned (in October!). Wewere all left with fond memories, a lot of information and new friends. Thankyou to our fantastic group and hosts!

Text: Hannakaisa Hänninen, second-year Social Services student

Photos:Ulla-Maija Koivula

Erasmus – the time of adventures!

2011-11-01T13:34:00.001+02:00

Have you ever seen this picture:

I mean not when you were learning about Darwin's evolutionary theory at school, but nowadays. I bet if you were, are or plan becoming an Erasmus exchange student you have!

I did a little experiment: I put this picture on my wall on Facebook. I received a double number of likes. Doesn’t it mean that the person who created this hit the point?

Let’s continue this little experiment of searching for more material about life-changing Erasmus. Here we go:

‘Erasmus – shake your life‘
‘I am not the same after my Erasmus’
‘How to survive after Erasmus’
‘Erasmus marked me’
‘Post Erasmus syndrome’
the famous video ‘Sorry, I am Erasmus!’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r356paCUZBk)

A smart man once said that you live until there are new things to try in your life. While Erasmus experience itself is an absolutely new thing, it is hard to express in words other new things you try during it, in such a short period of time. Your brain forgets what rest is and returns you a lot of deja vu feelings connected with changes of environment and life style.

Everybody takes his/hers own experience from Erasmus, whether it is improved language skills, new goals for the future, new opinion about yourself, new habits, new friends, new point of view etc. but it would be hard to find somebody arguing that Erasmus is not a time of adventures:

Have you ever visited 5 countries in 2 weeks?

Have you ever got a free beer in an underground private bar in the second most expensive city in the world, Oslo, from the citizen of Canada?

Have you ever celebrated Greek name day with Greeks (well, if you are not Greek, of course), or drunk beer listening and singing along with German traditional band during Oktoberfest, or tasted Spanish churros, British fish and chips and many more dishes from different countries… IN Finland?

Exploring other cities in Finland: Jyväskylä

Have you ever been searching for chestnuts in the Finnish forest because you want to try a beautiful Catalan tradition you have heard of for the first time about, reminding how you first read a children’s book by a German author Otfried Preuβler called Die kleine hexe (The little witch)?

Have you ever learned from a 2012, future edition, of the book in your home country or attended a sports class with 99 % of the instructions in Finnish?

Have you ever stood outside the door for half an hour because you haven’t managed to open a Finnish lock, or spent an hour in the supermarket searching for specific ingredient because labelling is mainly in Finnish?

Have you ever seen the river without water because it is necessary to take all the bicycles out of it?

Have you ever had a party on a cruise ship together with 100 other students on the way to Stockholm?

Have you ever had a team building exercise in the forest doing orienteering running?

Have you ever played a drinking game ‘have you ever’… haha, just kidding!

Have you ever had the feeling that all Europe is now your sweet small little home?

To sum up, have you ever had a better time and tried so many new things in such a short time? Have you ever been an Erasmus student or used an excuse “Sorry, I am Erasmus!” when you forgot to e-mail your family?

If you did, welcome to the club! If you did not, I hope you will, because one thing is for sure: Erasmus changes your life. You will never be the same because you managed to accept a culture shock. Congratulations – you are much stronger person now!

Text and photos: Eglė Kaselytė, International Business exchange student from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania
Graphic: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33635738643

Business Innovations Intensive Course in Lithuania

2011-10-28T12:05:00.001+03:00

We spent one amazing week in Lithuania. It was the first time the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Vytautas Magnus University organized an intensive course of the Nordic and Baltic Business Innovation Network, and they succeeded very well.

The week was organized by Vytautas Liesionis, his student assistants and Pirkko Varis from TAMK. Totally 30 students from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Lithuania joined the intensive week “Business in the Nordic and Baltic Countries”. TAMK students Pia Dag and Päivi Majamaa (TAMK Virrat) and Enni Jaatinen, Heidi Kuivajärvi, Ekku Ristilä, Juuso Saastamoinen, Joonas Samposalo, Laura Tiainen, Aki Vainio and Minna Vanne (Proacademy) took part in the intensive course.

We travelled to Vilnius on Sunday and met other Nordic and Baltic students from Denmark, Norway and Estonia. From Vilnius we travelled to the first destination of our stay where the Lithuanian students joined us. The first evening, night and day we spent in Liskiava. It is an old place with an interesting history, a beautiful church and buildings. We had such a good luck to get the opportunity to start the programme in that kind of a place.

We began to get to know each other better through funny games and competitions. It was nice to notice that even though I have taken part in many international projects during my studies there's always something new to learn, starting with the getting-to-know-each-other games. In the beginning of the course, all teams presented their countries, universities and study programmes and in addition, some greetings in their own languages, too.

After Liskiava, we travelled to Kaunas and got an interesting assignment from Tele2 company: the idea was to create tools for the company to increase its sales and expand its customer base. Once again it was wonderful and interesting to work with people from other countries.

Most of Tuesday and all of Wednesday were spent with our assignment. The teams worked hard and took the assignment seriously. There were many good ideas and, in the end, it was really hard to pick just one and start to work with that. On Thursday, we were all interested in hearing what the judges were going to think of our ideas, and who was going to be the ”winner”. It was also good to see the work of the other teams. Every time you have many teams working on the same assignment, it's funny and interesting to recognize how differently people and teams think. The presentations were really good, and the ideas behind the presentations were even better. Brainstorming and hard work usually transforms into good and colourful results!

On Thursday evening, the winning team was announced during the Lithuanian evening. Our hosts had organized a wonderful evening with original Lithuanian food and music. And that was really an amazing experience!

On Friday, it was time for feedback, reflection and reports. Then we all travelled back home.

The week was tough but enjoyable. I think we all learned new things from each other, and I think the differences between Nordic and Baltic people are not that big. We are once again richer with the new things that we learned and the new friendships that we got.

Text: Pia Dag, student of Marketing and International Business, TAMK Virrat Campus

Photos: Pia Dag and Karoline Rafter, Tromsø University Business School, Norway

TAMK’s student Noora Mäcklin dazzles as the new Maiden of Light

2011-10-26T13:05:00.000+03:00

Noora Mäcklin, a 23-year-old student fromYlöjärvi, was selected for the Maiden of Light, the figurehead for the 46th TampereIlluminations. Noora was given flowers at the final organised in connectionwith the ASTA Koti 2011 fair in Tampere. The soon graduating social servicesstudent and the new Maiden of Light told how she ended up becoming the Maidenof Light and how her working place surprised her after the win.

A year ago, Noora was singing at theChristmas Market with her sister Joanna. At the same time they attended theclosing of the market hosted by that year’s Maiden of Light Melinda Sulkama. Asa result of this, Noora soon became interested in the work of the Maiden ofLight. She searched for related information in the internet, and decided toapply in the following year.

Noora was accepted to the competition. Sheexperienced the semi-final as the most exciting phase:

”When I knew that I passed the semi-final,I had already partly won myself. The final weeks were fun; all the finalistswere really nice. I had most help from the stage performance prep given by AnneHelistö (Fashion Studio). I was a lot better at the final as I was not sonervous anymore. I was able to be myself.”

Noora will soon graduate to Bachelor ofSocial Services in the option of Social Pedagogy. She does not know yet whereshe would like to work. Noora says that she enjoys her work at the SocialInsurance Institution of Finland. The best in her TAMK studies have been thepractical trainings as she has found work and more or less her own place insocial services through them. Noora also liked the bachelor’s thesis work.
Even if Noora has not yet actually begunher year as the Maiden of Light, she already waits for the visits to the oldpeople’s homes and the opening of the Christmas Market:

”The best will be to meet differentpeople. I believe that I will also enjoy the hosting jobs. I know that I will likesinging and playing as there is nothing better to do during Christmas than tosing carols!”

According to Noora, her strengths as theMaiden of Light come from the studies and hobbies. Noora tells that she issocial and empathic. She has also had experience in performance through music.Noora has played the violin and piano as well as sung since she was a child.

”The warm comments andcongratulations have been the nicest during these weeks after the final andbefore the opening of the Illuminations. My family has been as excited aboutthe future tasks as I. I also had a nice surprise from my working place: congratulationsand a bunch of flowers from the directors and a head lamp from the fellow workersto bring light to the darkness!”

The new Maiden of Light begins her year byhosting the opening of the Illuminations on Sunday 30 October. She will alsoparticipate in the opening of Tampere Christmas and the Christmas parade onSunday 20 November. In addition, she will visit numerous old people’s homesbringing light to them who cannot visit the Illuminations anymore.

http://www.valoviikot.fi/in-english/

Text: Emma Ketonen
Rendition: Reija Lamminsivu
Photos: Noora Mäcklin

International tutoring – memories for a lifetime!

2011-10-18T12:47:00.002+03:00

Sanna with her new friends

Eachsemester TAMK receives about 150 new exchange students. To welcome the studentsthe International Services rely on the help of the students union Tamko and itssub-organization Club International Tampere (CLINT). The student tutors are theones who meet new exchange students at the airport, show them around their newneighborhood, and help with all the questions related to the way of life inTampere.

But what else is international tutoring? And why would you want to be one?

Sanna Hosike, Business Administration student and Survival Kit Coordinator atCLINT, explains: “it’s all true what they say about making new friends from allover the world, brushing up your language skills, and having the time of yourlife! For me, the best times have not been the parties but the time spenthanging out together just getting to know each other, making good food togetheretc. The only bad thing about tutoring is having to say goodbye to yourexchange students – I’ve never cried as much as I did the last time I took my tutoreesto the airport.”

Annika Dillenburger, a second year Tourism student,adds that most of her closest friends are other international tutors who shegot to know when she became one last year. Annika, too, still keeps in contactwith the exchange students she tutored and has even been to Hungary to visitone of them since. “I would say becoming an international tutor was the bestdecision I ever made and I really mean that!”

Karolina and her tutorees celebrating vappu

“The funniest thing is observing the exchangestudents’ first reactions to the Finnish ways”, says Karolina Cichacz, Chairmanof CLINT and an International Business student, and continues “for example thefirst time we take the students to sauna and they realize that people actuallygo there naked!”

Karolina is excited about the global network of friends she has made. Lastsummer she travelled to France and Malta to meet some of the former exchangestudents and there are still so many more friends to be visited! “There’snothing more heart melting than a “thankyou” from the exchange students. They really appreciate this unique servicethat we offer them”, Karolina concludes.

If you want to become an InternationalTutor, enroll to Tamko by 31 October 2011. More information: http://www.tamko.fi/pages/posts/international-tutor-training1097.php

Text: Emma Roinila, International Services
Photos: Sanna Hosike, Karolina Cichacz

Project Management in Greece

2011-10-14T18:27:00.002+03:00

Sonja, Sami, Toni and I got selected to join the LLP Erasmus intensive project management course IP PROMECON in Larissa, Greece.

Of course we were excited to travel to Greece with just for 80 euros (expenses paid by students) for two weeks just when the rainy and cold weather would have started in here Finland. But we acknowledged also that it wouldn’t be only sun, beaches and cold drinks because we had done some interviews with students who had been there on previous year. They said that there was going to be some simulation about logistics and other workshops so we knew how to prepare ourselves for this upcoming trip.

After we got to the airport of Athens, we met our new friends from Austria, Portugal and Denmark. We shook hands and noticed that there were quite many guys and no girls except one from Austria. “Is this going to be a course only with men and engineers?” I thought to myself.

Luckily this thought was false because after the arrival day we met the other students from Bulgaria, Germany and Greece, and they had some girls and non-engineering guys, too. We got our room from the campus of T.E.I. of Larissa, and the weather was great as we expected.

Sonja, Toni and Sami

On the first day, we got familiar with our new environment and friends. The campus was ok and the people were a quite nice bunch. On the second day, we got divided into multinational groups and were given assignments for projects which would help Larissa’s environment. Our job was to plan the projects, and my group’s mission was to renovate old tracks and build some new ones. We started with discussing the goals for our project. After that we used some models to build an organizational chart, shaped different environments and broke down the work for easier task handling.

It was pretty interesting to see how the group got into work. Michael, an Austrian guy, became the leader of our group (which he never admitted) because he had some work experience and best oral English skills. Others were throwing in some ideas and thoughts about how the project should be done.

During the next week, the groups were mixed up a bit, and our next job was to play a logistical simulation game. The main thing was to run a factory which produced bicycles and to sell bikes.

My group didn’t change that much but we lost our leader, Michael. We didn’t still lose our hope because Alexandra, who was maybe a little quiet during the first week, started to show some leadership skills and she seemed to know what to do. It was exciting to see the transformation.

The simulation included five periods and there were a total of eight groups competing against each other. The main parameter how they measured our success was how much profit we got. I think the simulation added some great competition to the course. Our group was the leader until third period but after that we did a huge mistake with quantities of sold items. Our profits dropped dramatically and there wasn’t any chance to win anymore.

Before summing up the whole course I want to mention a few things about our free time in Larissa. During the weeks, we usually went to the center of Larissa to see the city because there was a free bus ride. Sometimes we stayed at the campus to spend an evening there chatting with other students. The highlight was the first weekend when we went to the beaches of Neio Pori just about 30 minutes by train from Larissa. There we played beach volley, ate in restaurants, swam in the sea and sun bathed. It was really awesome. The main tourist season had just ended and there were no tourists except us and the weather was still great.

Local food in a local restaurant

All-in-all the trip to Greece was an eye-opener. We learned new things about other cultures and something also about project management, although there weren’t that many surprises. The course was maybe targeted more to engineers but I think we Proacademians were a nice refreshment to the engineers’ world of numbers.

Text and photos: Ilpo Ryynänen, 4th-year student in Business Information Systems

Education through community theatre

2011-10-13T11:14:00.002+03:00

TAMK’sspecialisation studies in Drama and Inclusive Theatre organised a community theatreevent together with the Centre for Practice as Research in Theatre on 5October. Daniel Maposa from Zimbabwevisited the event. The event was part of the project Voimaa taiteesta. Theworkshop of the day considered the role of community theatre in promotingwellbeing especially in Zimbabwe, where Daniel Maposa directs the Theatre forDevelopment ”Savanna Trust” group.The group aims at educating people and making them aware of their environmentand wellbeing by means of community theatre. The main objective is tostrengthen cultural democracy. To attainit, the group also teaches very practical matters by means of inclusivetheatre, such as sanitary issues to keep cholera under control, sexualeducation and other everyday wellbeing issues.

The inclusive theatre is adevelopment approach, which along with education has also been introduced inFinland, for example to increase wellbeing in work communities. Theory andpractice alternated in the workshop organised by the colourful and captivatingpersonality.

Maposa’swork is so called field work in whole Zimbabwe, but he also teaches inclusive theatremethods in Harare University. Dance belongs to the African learning tradition.We could learn from the holistic and functional learning situations here inFinland, where the learning approach is IT and sitting oriented.

Text and photo: Annukka Häkämies, Senior Lecturer

Tampere descents to kaamos

2011-10-07T10:21:00.000+03:00

23 September 2011 marked the autumnal equinox, when the day and the night are equal in length.

From there on, Finland slowly starts descending to darkness, kaamos.

The Finnish word ‘kaamos’ means more than darkness. Physically, yes, it is the time of dark, wet, gloomy and , eventually, slushy days. You barely recognize your friends because they are wearing thick pullovers, hats, mittens and skarfs. But it also means a shift in mentality: people turn inwards, become less active. All of a sudden it is more comfortable to crouch under the blanket on the sofa rather than going out for a walk or meeting a friend.

For a few more days, we get to enjoy the colours of the foliage.

Text and photos: Mirja Onduso, International Services

Stockholm, an AMAZING city!

2011-10-04T10:40:00.000+03:00

It all started on Sunday morning at 11. We were gathering in front of TAMK with about 100 exchange students. In order words: the recipe for having a great time!

The trip was organized by Club International Tampere (CLINT), and they made sure that we had bus transportation directly to the Viking Line in Helsinki. We only paid 50 euros for the whole trip which was in my opinion really cheap for one of the best weekend of my life.

There were a lot of things to do on the boat. There were bars, a cinema, restaurants, a casino, a duty free shop and of course 100 other exchange students who want to have a great time!

My plan was not to party the first night since I didn’t like to have a hangover during the six hours in Helsinki. But that is quite a challenge with such amazing people, nice drinks and great (Finnish) music in the club on the boat. It took 15 hours to get from Helsinki to Stockholm, but the time was flying.

The next morning I woke up with a tiny hangover and went outside to see the skyline of Stockholm, Sweden.

What an tremendously beautiful city! As soon as we got off the boat we seriously had no clue where to look, because everything was so beautiful. The old town is huge and all the buildings have beautiful colors especially in the sunny weather we had!

I have visited quite a lot of cities in Europe. I have been in Copenhagen, Riga, Tallinn, Paris, London, Milano and so on. But Stockholm is the most beautiful city I have ever visited. The 6 hours were absolutely too short so I would love to visit this city again!!

Many thanks to the great people who organized this trip!

Text and photos: Tom Winkel, International Business Exchange Student from Utrecht, Netherlands

Tampere information on ten languages

2011-09-30T14:30:00.000+03:00

The 5th Welcome to Tampere Fair took place in the University of Tampere on 28 September 2011. Presentations and information were given in ten languages: Finnish, English, Dari, Spanish, Chinese, Kurdish, Somali, Turkish, Estonian and Russian.

-This helps a lot! When you are new in town, it is not easy to find information, says Serge Tcheuffa from Cameroon. He recently moved to Tampere from Paris, with his wife Katariina.

The fair, aimed at new international students and immigrants in Tampere, introduced Tampere’s public services, as well as free-time activities. The city’s greeting was brought by Deputy Mayor Perttu Pesä.

I Love Tampere!

Several organisations introduced themselves, e.g: Maailmantanssi (dance group), Immigrant Women’s Sewing Workshop, Mummon Kammari (charity for elderly people), Service Union United (trade union), Scouts, Finnish Red Cross, Tampere Estonia Club, Tampere House of Girls (support service for girls), and Tampere Centre of Russia Culture. The Tampere Evangelical Lutheran Congregation told about their services in English.

Mari Riihikoski made badges designed by fair participants.

I love TAMK!

Education was presented by TAMK, Sataedu (vocational training), Tampere Adult Education Centre (TAKK), Tampereen työväenopisto (adult education centre), Tampereen Open University, and WorkPlace Pirkanmaa project. Public officials gave presentations on e.g. job hunting, work agreements, entrepreneurships and the Immigrant Advice Centre.

Have you tried an eBook?

The fair was organised by the Studying in Tampere Region (SITR) network of the higher education institutes in Tampere, the City of Tampere and ALMA- and TyöMaa-projects.

Text and photo: Mirja Onduso

Time to roadshow again

2011-09-26T19:31:00.004+03:00

The Europe Day was celebrated in Saint Petersburg, Russia on Saturday 24 September when all those interested in the European Union had the chance to visit the embassies and consulates of the EU member states to get more information of the countries and their current status in the Union. The Europe Day opened the doors of the Consulate General of Finland in Saint Petersburg, too, where the Finnish higher education institutions were presented to the potential applicants. The event was coordinated by CIMO and proved to be as big a success as last year.

(Riku-Matti Kinnunen at the Study in Tampere stand)

When the doors opened to the Consulate General at noon, the event venue was soon full of visitors busy finding their future place of study. TAMK introduced its five bachelor's programmes taught in English at the event, and was met with lots of enthusiasm and a flood of questions from the young Russians and their parents. Riku-Matti Kinnunen represented TAMK at the stand, and also gave a presentation of TAMK in the event. The quarter-of-an-hour long introduction to TAMK and its educational offer drew the lecture room full of interested listeners.

(Igor Tanskanen at the stand)

The University of Tampere was presented by Igor Tanskanen at the same stand, and the third university of the city, the Tampere University of Technology, was present through printed brochures. The three universities of Tampere caught the attention of the visitors under the name Study in Tampere.

The five degree programmes taught in English that will start at TAMK in the autumn semester 2012 offer studies in media, international business, nursing, tourism and environmental engineering. More information can be had at www.tamk.fi/e n. The application period for the degree programmes in English run from 9 January till 14 February 2012. The on-line application can be filled in at www.admissions.fi.

Text: Riku-Matti Kinnunen
Pictures: Igor Tanskanen and Riku-Matti Kinnunen

2011-09-23T14:43:00.000+03:00

Seminars and networking at EAIE 2011 in Copenhagen

The European Association for International Education (EAIE) 23rd annual conference took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12 – 16 September 2011.

TAMK’s Head of International Services Kirsi Tolvanen (right) with colleagues of Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), the Netherlands. TAMK and HvA will start cooperation in the field of Media.

The annual conference is the most important event for actors on international education to meet each other. The conference consists of parallel seminars, info and dialogue sessions, workshops and networking events. It was also possible to visit Danish partners during the one-day university visits. In the fair, there were 250 exhibitors: single universities, university conglomerates, national agencies, country offices, programme providers, etc.

4200 people, mainly from Europe but also from other continents, attended this year’s conference. Seven TAMK people participated from TAMK: Marja Sutela, Aura Loikkanen, Tarja Haukijärvi, Kirsi Tolvanen, Janne Hopeela, Gitte Taulo and Mirja Onduso.

-This is our best opportunity to meet with our partners: almost all our 370 partners are here. Instead of us travelling to their universities, we can meet them all here, says Kirsi Tolvanen, Head of TAMK International Services.

European students on the move

Swedes go to Denmark to study medicine, French to Belgium to become physiotherapists, Finns to Estonia to become veterinarians, Germans to Holland for their degrees – even British students are going abroad for their studies. There are increasing numbers of young people going abroad to study for a full degree. Reasons vary, impacts vary. And all this internationalisation is happening without EU support.

When the supply of education and demands from students do not match, students look for possibilities outside their own country. This is the case in some of the most popular fields of study, like medicine for Swedish students. One of the reasons for German students to go to Holland for their education is the quality of teaching. Students have reported about the crowded first-year classes at German universities due to the fact that everyone is accepted in the university. The selection to continue after the first year is made on the basis of performance in their studies. In the Dutch universities there will be smaller groups and a secured place to continue their studies. This migration happens even though Holland has introduced tuition fees also for EU citizens. The smaller tuition fees compared to England, on the other hand, is the reason why universities in Holland witnessed a large increase of British applicants.

The University of Aarhus (in the photo) is just merging with TAMK’s partner Engineering College of Aarhus. The new university will be called Aarhus School of Engineering (ASE).

Tuition fees or no tuition fees, is a stirring discussion. Is it right for a government to offer free education and in this way restrict competition between universities? Is this not subsidizing? This was a question posed in Copenhagen in one of the workshops by a participant from Holland. Polish students used to come to Holland before the tuition fees were introduced. Now they have turned to Denmark for free education. Is the Danish government not subsidizing the Danish Universities?

Almost all European countries offering English taught programs wish to keep the graduates to help with their diminishing work force. A study in Copenhagen showed that it is especially the Scandinavian degree students, the young, and those who have not had a student job who go back to their home countries after graduation. If not benefitting the countries that offer education for free or for low tuition fees, this student migration surely benefits the home countries of the students. They go back with degrees and loads of cross cultural experience.

It will be interesting to see the effects of the new government platform in Finland. Cutting down over 2 000 study places in particular from fields of culture, tourism and technology might turn into a migration of Finnish students to other European countries or other parts of the world for their higher education degrees instead of guiding students to other fields of studies. Or shall this cutting down of study possibilities prepare the ground and market for the landing of foreign universities offering education with tuition fees in Finland?

The joint reception was a huge success

TAMK, the University of Tampere (UTA) and Tampere University of Technology (TUT) hosted for the first time a joint reception for international partners. The reception took place on 15 September 2011 at the residence of the Finnish Ambassador to Denmark.

Ambassador Maarit Jalava mentioned in her welcome speech that supporting the internationalisation of Finnish education is also high on the agenda of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Maria Virtanen (left), Harri Melin (second right) and Marja Sutela (right)

Maria Virtanen, a coordinator of the Study In Tampere Region (SITR), project of the three universities, introduced Tampere as a student-friendly city and told about the forms of coordination of the joint activities: courses for international exchange and degree students, the "Finnish Society and Culture" lecture series, and joint job recruitment services for international students. UTA's Vice Rector Harri Melin and TAMK's Vice President Marja Sutela also greeted the guests.

The reception was attended by 100 partners from 30 countries. Many visitors were amazed with the services and the number of English-taught courses and programmes offered in Finland.

Inkeri Vänskä, Kongelige Teater's opera orchestra, played Finnish music at the reception.

More information on EAIE at www.eaie.org

Text: Aura Loikkanen and Mirja Onduso
Photos: Mirja Onduso

Palestinians visit Finnish social services

2011-09-22T09:52:00.000+03:00

A high-level delegation from the Palestinian National Authority's Ministry of Social Affairs visited TAMK on Wednesday 21 September 2011.

The visit is a part of an EU-funded project training Palestinian officials in social services management. The leader of the project based in Ramallah, West Bank, is Timo Piirainen. TAMK's Social Services lecturer Ulla-Maija Koivula has been a consultant to the project. She has visited Ramallah five times since October 2010.

Koivula introduced the basics of Finnish and Tampere social services to the visitors, e.g. the municipal strategies, the national legislation, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, the social assistance system, and the purchaser-provider model of Tampere. She stressed that the Finnish social services are based on an individual's needs, and that an individual receives a written "care and support plan". The Finnish work also aims at early intervention and multi-professional work.

The Deputy Minister of Social Affairs, Mohammed K. A. Hamied, said they are impressed with the way Finland, having the northern geographic conditions and a small population, has managed to build such working social services.

- Finns are very much pioneers in this field: you have adapted well in hard conditions and use your resources in a useful way, he said.

The Deputy Minister said that, with the help of the project, the Palestinians have managed to draft a new strategy for their Ministry, train key persons on management, and set up 17 regional offices.

The delegation will visit Tampere City Welfare Office, Kuusikko Family Support Center, Viola Home, and the Service Center for Hearing and Visually Impaired. On Friday 23 September, the delegation takes part in a Social Services seminar at the University of Tampere.

Text and photo: Mirja Onduso

Student exchange from Miyagi University, Japan

2011-09-12T13:45:00.000+03:00

Seven students from Miyagi University, Japan, arrived in Tampere on Thursday August 25^th August and their host families were at the bus station to meet them. This is the fourth year that TAMK R&D and Education Services receive students for exchange from Sendai for a couple of weeks.

The students were from different fields of study (food, energy, design & media) and this was their first time in Europe and, of course, in Tampere. Everything was exciting and new. On Friday, orientation and practicalities were presented by Kirsi Tolvanen and Mirja Onduso from the International Services, and the first day ended in Tampere sightseeing tour. They visited Rauhaniemi, Tuomiokirkko church and they also saw the city from the Pyynikki Observation Tower and, of course, tasted the delicious doughnuts.

During the weekend, the students had time to recover from the jetlag and get to know their host families better.

On Monday, it was time for school again. Esa Ala-Uotila and Perttu Heino presented R&D and Education Services and after lunch Kimmo Vänni, using Japanese and English, presented the Facilities for New Sleep Innovations as well as the Facilities for Independent Coping on Kuntokatu 4 Campus.

Introduction and preparation for the field study was conducted by Jarmo Perttunen and Kimmo Vänni and with the students they also visited Demola – Open innovation platform for students and companies in the Finlayson Area. During the visit the students had plenty of time for independent study which they used actively. Some of the students visited Helsinki for more material for their field study.

Students (Natsumi, Miho, Rikako, Kana, Chieko, Ai and Akane) in Virrat with Jukka Lampila and Kimmo Vänni

On Friday 2^nd September, we made a field trip to Virrat. First we visited the Heritage Village where we were told about the history of Finnish way of life. Our guide took us to see the Herraskoski Canal, and at the Hali Forest Cottage the students experienced wood sawing the old fashioned way. We had lunch at Holiday Island Marttinen, and the students enjoyed the buffet lunch whole-heartedly. Then it was time for some shopping in Palmroth Center where Marimekko shop was the main attraction. We were fortunate to have Jukka Lampila guide us through TAMK Campus and after visiting Virrat public library we headed to Toriseva scenery café for some coffee and apple pie with custard. The scenery was beautiful!

During their last week, the students continued independent study by doing some surveys. They also visited some companies of their own field, for example Naistenlahti Power Plant, Turtola Citymarket, and Chef Heikki Ahopelto’s new Armas-perhe cheese factory from which the students were taken to a farm to get traditional Kyyttö-milk for the cheese.

A fun Tuesday evening was spent with good food and good company in the Get-Together, organized for the students, host families and TAMK staff members. The students performed a traditional Japanese dance which was about a fisherwoman.

On Wednesday 7^th September, Kimmo took the students to Nuutajärvi where they were guided around the Glass Village and had the opportunity to see glassblowing and go shopping for some quality design products. Shopping was something the students liked to do and they bought salmiakki and licorice, xylitol products, cheese and of course Moomin-related items; candy, soda, mugs, etc.

On Thursday, it was time for them to present their findings on the field studies. Their presentations were very interesting. Friday 9^th September was the closing day of the visit with farewell lunch. The students did quite well in the Tampere/Finland Quiz. On Saturday, the students were sad to leave their host families. I’m sure that the families were also sad to see the students go back to Japan.

Exploring lingon berries

Trying out the old fashion way to saw

The students experienced different things with their host families, from sauna and swimming in the lake to eating black sausage, the famous Tampere delicacy. Some of the students had a chance to meet with figure skater Kiira Korpi who, I learned, is very famous in Japan. This meeting was probably the most memorable thing of this visit for those who got to meet her.

Text and photos: Kirsi Leiniö
Video: Mirja Onduso

“AMAZING” is going through our heads, day after day

2011-09-11T17:10:00.001+03:00

We, exchange students, have begun our study here at TAMK on 22th August with Orientation Week. On the way there, I was thinking, where I have to go and how will I find the classroom, since I have never been on the Kuntokatu campus. But, much to my surprise, there were international tutors with our name tags and folders with all the info we need. Then they send us to the classroom, where was coffee and sandwiches.

After that, I was not worried anymore and there was no reason for that.

We got lot of information in the folders and from international coordinators. But just to be sure that we know everything, there were guys from student union TAMKO, banks, free time activities, health care, and more. We could ask all that was on our mind. Orientation contained also tour through the main campus and the city of Tampere.

All this showed me that this exchange will be the best thing in my life.

Probably the best part of it all is the international group of people that surround me every day, from all the corners of the world. Everybody is so different, and that is the beauty of it. Meeting new people, new cultures new habits and, most importantly, exploring FINLAND: from little islands like Viikinsaari to lakes, sauna and Finnish language.

See you around :)

Text and Photos: Klemen Krulec, Media exchange student from Maribor University, Slovenia

Greetings from Dubai

2011-09-09T15:15:00.002+03:00

Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

I'm now working here with the local facilitators-to-be to the new online teacher education programme TAMK and TAOKK are starting to run with Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. I'm giving an intensive series of workshops for the people who are going to be facilitating the programme together with me so that they'll be ready to start working when the programme starts at the end of this month.

The content of the workshops includes authentic e-learning and progressive inquiry (the pedagogical approach of theprogramme), evaluation and assessment, facilitating online collaboration and practicing the use of the technologies that will be used in the program: Blackboard Vista, Wimba webconferencing tool, Google+, Google Docs and Blogger.

We have an absolutely fantastic group here: ten really experienced, great people who are also fun to work with. The facilitators didn't know each other from before but they have already become a team. I'm very excited about the opportunity to work with them in this programme.

Participants of the facilitator workshop

On Saturday there'll be the annual HCT conference and I'm happy to have the chance to be one of the invited speakers there. I'll be talking about our programme. So far there are 90 people registered to my session - let's hope we'll get many new participants from the audience!

Text and photos: Hanna Teräs, TAMK Senior Lecturer

Greetings from Korea

2011-09-08T15:07:00.004+03:00

TAMK participated in the e-Learning Korea 2011: Expo in Seoul. Finland was represented well in the expo: Finpro had arranged an exhibition for 7 Finnish organisations and companies. The participants from TAMK were Henri Annala and Marianna Leikomaa.

We mainly promoted TAMK’s new on-line vocational teacher education program, but naturally also replied to a lot of questions about our English degree programs as well. People also seemed interested in Finland in general, and a few people we met had even visited Tampere!

Seoul is a bustling city with lots of sights and it would’ve been great to be able to see a bit more of it! This just means that we will have to come back soon again, and enjoy even more of what this great city has to offer! (And to eat some more of the fabulous food served here!)

"In the neighborhood" - from Canada to Finland

2011-09-07T14:29:00.008+03:00

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting a visitor all the way from Ontario, Canada. Ms. Joanne Elvy, the Director of International Student Outreach at Algoma University, stopped by at TAMK on her way to the annual EAIE conference in Copenhagen. “Once you’re in the neighborhood, you have got to make the most out of it”, Joanne said.

Joanne’s day was fully packed, but I had an hour with her and we discussed teacher and staff exchange between our two universities. If the people in our international services are talkative, so was Joanne! Everyone she met said the scheduled hour went flying by and so much was accomplished in just one day. Joanne told me about Canadian social infrastructure, related to their ongoing courses and projects in Algoma, to which their faculty would be pleased to have some visitors. Maybe in the future? And possibly we could have some Canadian faculty visiting us too. A lot of good ideas came up when chatting with Joanne.

In addition, she met the international coordinators Piri and Matti for outgoing students as well as Mirja and Emma for incoming. And of course, our Head of International Services, Kirsi Tolvanen. Joanne’s day in TAMK was fully booked as she also had a chance to meet up with Janne Hopeela and Gitte Taulo, our international coordinators for International Business and Nursing.

I heard Joanne had lavishing 7 minutes (!!) at her hotel to prepare herself for the night’s Get-Together party where she recapped the whole busy day with Kirsi. I hope Joanne enjoyed the day in TAMK - she definitely loved Tampere - and will have a productive week in Copenhagen. There she probably will meet some familiar faces from TAMK…

Text: Noora Järventaus, TAMK International Services
Photo & Logo: Courtesy of Algoma University

March of Time

2011-08-30T16:14:00.039+03:00

“Days of joy, day of sadness come and go to pass
me by. A month, a year, one hundred years, they fly”
It feels like I started my traineeship at TAMK International Services yesterday.
It is hard to believe that I started working here six months ago and now my traineeship is coming to its end.
Through the months I have experienced all sorts of things, met hundreds of nice people from various countries and learned a thing or two while working at TAMK.
I have really enjoyed working in a truly international environment and being able to help TAMK to be even more international in the future.

I also noticed that one should never underestimate the MS Office skills needed for this kind of a job. I must pay special thanks to Mr. Timo Nevalainen, who taught me some really handy tricks in his computing lessons.

The highlight of the whole traineeship was the International Week for Non-Teaching Staff in June. Organizing the whole event and meeting our lovely guests was spectacular. Sometimes I did not even feel I was working!

As I have been one of the main contributors to this blog, I sure hope this TAMK International Blog stays alive even when I am gone.

My current plan is to continue and finish my International Business studies here at TAMK. Hopefully I will find a good thesis topic and be able to graduate in the desired time span. Who knows where I will end up next year… maybe I will write to this blog again in another life!

After all the experiences I got through this traineeship, I can say that TAMK is a great place as a student and as an employee too!

Text: Elias Suominen
Photo: Noora Järventaus

Lucky Media students experience GDC Europe and GamesCom

2011-08-26T09:38:00.000+03:00

This years Game Developer Conference Europe and GamesCom guest lists included three students from our very own Degree programme in Media. By winning the, Nokia sponsored, Demola organised mobile concept competition (read story ) we were able to choose any conference in Europe to visit! Our choice was GDC Europe 2011 and the affiliated GamesCom trade event that were held during the same week in Cologne, Germany. It was easy to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and take part in both kinds of event on the same trip. With us travelled Bernard Garvey from Demola who seemed to enjoy our company. For GamesCom Nokia were unable to finance our visit because of it officially being a separate event so TAMK very generously sponsored the extra nights needed to visit the trade fair.

There were the most people in the booth area during the pauses in GDC

GDC Europe is known and respected world wide as a large event in the gaming industry. This year it included many lectures, parties and of course networking. There were lectures from Monday to Wednesday on subjects ranging from business and marketing to game design, programming, visual arts and production. We were of course able to choose which lectures we went to and most of the time plumped for those that seemed the most interesting. Parties took place every night too. From which you had to choose the best as well. Networking was easier at parties because the feeling was relaxed and you were able to talk about more than just work. At the end of the day my handbag was always full of business cards!

The humoristic lecturer told us about game design

It was fun to see that despite being at such a large event we were also able to meet other students. We came in contact with, among others, German and Swedish students. It was also brilliant to get to know people from outside Finland that are actually studying in the same area. By sharing experiences and ideas you no doubt learn best. On the other hand we also got to know some Finns from the games industry, which is handy when we come to think about internships. GamesCom also had representatives from various Universities and that increased the possibilities for exchange studies.

Nintendo was pretty popular because their new 3DS console

We also succeeded in mingling with one of the biggest forces in the industry:ArenaNet! The firm was presenting a demo of their new game, Guild Wars 2. We were even able to test the game on Wednesday before the event even began as trade visitors and press had their own preview of GamesCom. At the end of the week the gigantic halls we full to the brim with enthusiastic gamers. Having been invited to the NCSoft party we got the opportunity to meet the actual producers from ArenaNet. We got to know, among others, famous concept artists Kekai Kotaki and Daniel Dociu - a real once in a life time opportunity. One of our group member's dreams came true when these legends came up with a surprising and unusual idea. The next day at gamescom, on stage, Kekai was to draw a Guild Wars 2 tattoo onto none other than Anna's shoulder. Of course you didn't need to ask Anna twice and she snapped up the opportunity what with being such a huge fan of the game.

Anna was very happy with her new tattoo

The journey was no doubt one that none of the group will forget! We are more than pleased with what we have learnt and found the whole experience really inspiring. In the future we will no doubt be looking for even more promising opportunities, like this, to explore.

Story: Emma Kiiski
Translation Douglas Symon
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The three awarded students, Emma Kiiski, Douglas Symon and Anna Narinen are students of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories from/about IMPs, the Media students
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A really nice Nice network meeting 2011 in Zwolle and Emden

2011-08-24T09:27:00.018+03:00

In summer 2011 Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences had the possibility to participate in the annual NICE network meeting, organised by Marianne van Vlierden & Jamillla ter Steege from Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, School of Business & Economics in Zwolle, the Netherlands and Andrea Meyenburg & Katja Hakkarainen-Janssen from the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer in Emden, Germany.

Marianne van Vlierden opening the NN meeting.

Thomas Hoffmann from University of Applied Sciences Nordhausen introducing new members.

The programme included plenary and workshop sessions on ERASMUS news and updates, internationalization at home, (un)successful IP applications, institutional internationalization strategies, strategies for improving faculty involvement in exchanges, ensuring maximum benefit from the Erasmus experience for all university members, international project and staff weeks update. An introduction to the Netherlands by a Dutch student and a presentation on Emden and East Frisia by the representative of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce were part of the programme, too. We got many useful ideas for our work in international affairs and did a lot of networking.

A new member of the network Olev Tõru presenting Tallinn College of Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia.

Workshop sessions.

Margarete Seidenspinner from Heilbronn University and thank you to Marianne, Katja and Andrea.

Several visits were organized, too. We had a very interesting and special visit to the Simulation Centre of the department of Maritime Studies of the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer in Leer and a guided tour in Emden including an East Frisian Tea Ceremony. In the Netherlands we had a guided tour in the city centre of Zwolle and we made a roundtrip by boat in Giethoorn, called the Venice of Holland. In the centre of the village there are wooden arch bridges and canals where you have to travel by boat. Thank you Marianne for organizing this fantastic experience!

Some of us leaving for the roundtrip by boat in Giethoorn.

Giethoorn.

What is NICE network?

The New Initiatives and Challenges in Europe, NICE network is a network for representatives of more than 35 business schools, faculties and departments of business and economics. They work together in order to develop curricula, joint projects, intensive programmes, exchanges, internships and other cooperation. Pirkko Varis from Tampere University of Applied Sciences has taken part for many years in the NICE network and in the projects initiated by the members of the network. For example the IICEE European module was developed by some partners and now it is part of the curriculum in several universities throughout Europe, TAMK included. An intensive programme (IP) has been developed based upon the module, too. In annual meetings of the network study programmes and methods are compared, new initiatives are discussed and proposals are made for cooperation and development of the network. The Quality Charter of the NICE network and other information is available on the website of the network www.nicenetwork.eu

Text : Pirkko Varis
Photos: Regina Parzer, IMC Fachhochschule Krems - University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria & Jamilla ter Steege, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands

EILC, time to say goodbye!

2011-08-23T17:49:00.020+03:00

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the first steps of EILC course and now it’s time to tell you the rest of the story. Here is a brief summary of what EILC is and all about our adventures in Tampere.

This year TAMK organized its Erasmus Intensive Language Course (EILC) for the first time. Between 1.8 – 19.8.2011 18 exchange students from ten different countries took part in the course. During the course the students learned some Finnish, got familiar with Finnish culture, discovered the best parts of Tampere and of course got new friends.

Doughnuts, yam!

On the first weekend we walked to the Pyynikki ridge and climbed to the observation tower to admire the stunning view over Tampere. And of course before returning we needed some sugar power so we rewarded ourselves with delicious doughnuts.

Best doughnut in Tampere, or in the world...yam!

Time to play!

On Tuesday we had cultural activities, and culture in Tampere includes, of course, Vapriikki and Särkänniemi. In Vapriikki we got close to nature as we fondled with stuffed animals, heard birds singing, smelled some bottled scents of flowers and the most courageous ones crawled in the “Tammerkoski tunnel”. We also learned little bit about the history of Tammerkoski and Tampere, made goals in Ice Hockey Museum, admired shoes from different decades and shared our childhood memories during the exhibition Time to Play – Treasures of the Toy Box.

“Time to Play – Treasures of the Toy Box”

After our visit to the museum it was time to continue playing in another spot, in Särkänniemi. We tried the Tornado, some other rides, the Tornado again, Dolphinarium, the Tornado, Näsinneula, the Zoo, the Tornado and one more time the Tornado, or two times…but who’s counting anyway. ;) The exchange students also learned a useful Finnish phrase during the day: “lihis kahdella nakilla!” All in all, our day was perfect!

This is it, the Tornado!

It's not allowed to bump!

Mustaamakkaraa ja salmiakkia

After bowling and many other activities it was finally time to taste some Finnish food. On Friday all of the language courses held in Tampere (altogether over hundred people) got together at the University of Tampere. Exchange students had a chance to taste rye bread, karelian pies with egg butter, black sausage, cinnamon buns, blueberry soup, gingerbread biscuits, Fazer chocolate, salmiakki and xylitol gum. The cinnamon buns were a real success whereas salmiakki was considered too salty. In addition to food tastings, the students had to interview people from other language courses in Finnish and answer a quiz about Finnish food. Of course, there was a prize (Muumi mug) to the person who had the best score in quiz.

Finnish food isn't that pretty but the taste is delicious!

All good things come to an end…

Despite the fact that it was our last week, everyone started it with a good mood. On Monday evening we gathered to Café Europa to play some board games. Alias became everyone’s favorite and believe it or not, we managed to play it with all 20 people together.

We started Wednesday morning by watching a Finnish movie Napapiirin Sankarit. After the relaxing movie moment it was time to work a little bit. The students prepared their presentations on Finnish culture. On Friday, after Thursday’s exam, it was show time for presentations. It was amazing to hear how much the exchange students knew about Finnish culture! They honestly deserved the Certificates of Finnish Language and Culture Course that they were granted afterwards. As a reward for these amazing three weeks it was appropriate to celebrate the EILC course by having a Farewell Party Friday evening!

Time just flew by during these three weeks and now it’s time to say goodbye... It was an honor and a pleasure for me to be the course secretary of EILC course! I enjoyed every moment with all my heart!

Kiitos EILC-kurssilaiset!

You can also check out our Finnish blog for additional material on EILC!

Text and photos:
EILC Course Secretary
Tiia Partanen

Experiences of studies - Diego Rivas, a graduate from TAMK

2011-08-16T15:07:00.004+03:00

"I am very glad and satisfied that I have finished my Bachelor’s Degree. The whole time spent at TAMK was very satisfactory.

First of all, it is relevant to say that I am very grateful for the opportunity to study at TAMK and for the whole aspect of my studies. The studies in Finland, and being more specific on the Degree Programme in Tourism, were very professionally oriented, something different from some other study experiences that I had taken before. The facts that I appreciate the most were the flexibility during the studies, the facilities offered, the opportunities to take part on Erasmus exchange programmes, internships also abroad, and the participation on some intensive programmes with some other universities.

Diego (on the left in the photo) with the winning team from Finland in ICC IP in Germany.

The studies were organized in a very flexible way and they were more orientated on practice matters rather than in theoretical ones, being those theoretical taught in order to be used in the working life. So I really felt that at some point by working in groups, organizing events and trips, making some real assignments in direct collaboration with some companies were tasks useful for my working life. I have noticed also that I was getting more competence expertise as long as the studies were going along, and the final thesis was probably the reflection of it. Due to my studies and internship experiences, I see myself more professionally prepared to face new challenging situations and I definitely do not regret the time being at TAMK.

During my studies I had the chance to participate in two different international Erasmus intensive programmes related to tourism and intercultural communication, in Finland and in Germany. Both were a great chance to meet up people, to learn more about other cultures and communication and to work in groups with other students from other universities and background. It was also a great chance to know new destinations. I also had the chance to fulfil my internships in different companies, lasting three months each time, first in Düsseldorf (Germany) in an online tourism enterprise and lately in Spain in a consulting company. Beside those ones, the flexibility of my studies were really important as at the same time I was a student I was also working as a freelance Spanish teacher in Tampere, which also gave me a nice input about the Finnish culture and people.

In May 2011, just before my graduation, I moved to Bergen, Norway, where I have found a job related to tourism, my study field, and I am sure that I will use my professional compentence learned at TAMK and get more familiar with tourism by working with different tasks and in a new environment.

I will definitely encourage people to study at TAMK and in particular in the Degree Programme in Tourism. In addition, as Finland is such a unique place I will recommend foreigners to learn some Finnish and get familiar with the basics of the culture, as that will help a lot, at least it did a lot to me."

Diego Rivas

TAMK at Assembly, Summer 2011

2011-08-13T11:47:00.000+03:00

TAMK participated in the biggest game party in the country with few enthusiastic students from both Teiskontie and Finlayson. We got our stuff in the Hartwall arena and had a stand for everyone to come to ask about TAMK and what we are studying and look what we have been doing (game projects etc). For me personally this was the first time in Assembly so everything was new and exciting! Assembly is a great way to connect with students from other schools and some interesting people from the industry. It’s also an event to share knowledge, experiences, ideas, new technology and most importantly; having fun with all this!

Leaving from TAMK

The sea of computer screens in the arena looked wonderful in the evening when the lights were turned off and many of the gamers continued playing the whole night. Fortunately there was also a possibility to take a few hours sleep on the hallway to gather some energy. There was a band playing in the main stage before midnight and before that some very interesting game developing compo videos were shown in the big screen. Everyone in the event could vote for their favorite games in the compo. Some school projects had been shown as well as hobbyist game demos. It was really interesting to see that a university of applied sciences in Kajaani (KAJAK) was really actively presenting their projects and they had something to be proud about. It’s a shame there were no games in the compo from TAMK but let’s see if next year brings any new good games to be showed in Assembly!

TAMK's awesome stand

There were many interesting seminars about new online game development. For example Mozilla was presented in browser-based developing. It’s already quite amazing what you can create with only the browser’s 2D (Canvas) and 3D (WebGL) tools.
There was a presentation from Supercell (a game company) where they presented new and light game technology with a quite old tool Flash. The game looked pretty good and was light to run with the browser. In amount the seminars were really interesting and inspiring. It wasn’t all about game development; some of the topics covered for example game music. There was a lot to choose from for everyone.

The event has offered graphic contests and game tournaments which are a fun way to spend time in between of playing in the middle of the sea of computers.

Angry Birds - live version

At some point a former students from TAMK’s international business programme came to talk to us. He works now in Rovio with Angry Birds and was really positive about TAMK students to get to work over there too. That would be a really good chance for internship. It was nice to notice that TAMK is a good school to jump from into the industry.

I left in the Saturday evening so I wasn’t able to join the fun on Sunday. But next year I will for sure participate in the event and promote TAMK and our awesome game projects! It was a really great trip and taught me a lot; I hope the others enjoyed too!

Story: Emma Kiiski
The author is student of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories from/about IMPs, the Media students
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Assembly Summer 2011
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EILC is finally here!

2011-08-05T10:08:00.009+03:00

What on earth is EILC?

The EILC courses are organized for European Erasmus students and courses are funded by the European Union. TAMK organizes Erasmus Intensive Language Course (EILC) for the first time this year. The course goes on for three weeks, from 1.8 to 19.8.2011. There are altogether 18 exchange students taking part in Finnish language course of TAMK. They come from Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. Half of the participants will continue their studies at TAMK during autumn semester and the other half will spend the rest of their Erasmus-period in other universities in Finland.

There are also other Finnish language courses in Tampere and they are all beginners’ level courses. University of Tampere organizes three EILC courses and SITR (the Studying in Tampere Region) organizes Summer School for exchange students coming outside of the EU and ILC (Intensive Language Course) for Hungarian students in honor of the 90-year-old diplomatic relations between Hungary and Finland. EILC course of TAMK co-operates with other Finnish language courses, especially on free time activities.

In addition to Finnish language lessons, we organize many cultural activities during these three weeks. Students get to familiarize with Finnish culture and society; experience the heat of sauna, taste Finnish food, watch Finnish movies and much more.

First week is full of first times: first words in Finnish, first time in sauna, first…

On Monday, 1st of August, I saw many curious and smiling faces in the lobby and I have to admit that I (course secretary) was as curious and happy as they were. I had been waiting for this day all summer and finally it was time to kick-off the EILC course. The first day just flew by; there was a lot of information to be passed out, lots of practical matters to be taken care of and getting to know TAMK.

On Tuesday Ms Ulla-Maija Koivula from Social Services lectured about Finnish Society and Culture and in the end of lecture everyone was laughing out loud to YouTube sketch on Finnish drinking habits. In the afternoon the students had their first language lesson. As a result you could hear them using common small-talk phrases like “Mitä kuuluu?” as if they were true Finns.

They actually study here too!

On Wednesday afternoon we had a guided sightseeing tour around Tampere. We discovered the most interesting parts of Tampere such as Hervanta suburb, city centre, Finlayson area, Stable Yards and Pyynikki ridge.

Our guide Ritva Haveri offered her knowledge about Tampere and its history.

On Thursday we organized a trip to Viikinsaari Island with the EILC course of University of Tampere. There were altogether about 70 of us and the atmosphere was fun and relaxed. Almost everyone tried sauna and swimming, and they seemed to enjoy the heat of sauna and refreshing water of Pyhäjärvi. The day also included some football and volleyball, sunbathing and of course grilling of delicious sausages. The sun shined all day so the weather was in our favour. Our timing was perfect too, since it began to rain when the last of us were leaving the island.

No alcohol allowed to be taken to the island... I guess we have to stick with ice cream then.

You can spot over eighteen people on this picture, which means that University of Tampere EILC members are also visible.

That’s all for now. Now I got to hurry to watch a Finnish movie, Moomins and the Comet Chase...

Text:
EILC Course Secretary
Tiia Partanen

Photos:
Tiia Partanen

Memories to last a lifetime

2011-07-26T11:54:00.000+03:00

During my studies in the Degree Programme in Tourism I spent a year in Athens, Greece, as an Erasmus exchange student. I highly recommend an exchange period for all students, and especially those in the tourism field, as it is an international industry and success in it requires multi-cultural social skills.

I chose Athens as my destination because I had lived on a Greek island some years before, and figured an exchange would be the perfect opportunity to add on to my limited Greek language skills. I was also intrigued by the idea of living in a metropolis city – as a small town girl I thought it made the exchange all the more exciting. Also, I figured that as the tourism industry brings in a big part of the Greek national income, they must have some expertise there to share.

Athens

The first few weeks of my residing in Athens can be described with one word – chaos. Although I had previous experience of the Greek culture, I must admit I did suffer some sort of culture shock. Life in Athens was similar to the life on the islands - multiplied by a hundred. Cars, houses, people, noise, shops, cafes, and then some more cars and houses and people…. It took me some time to learn my way around (I still don’t know how I found my way back to my house the first few times I ventured out J ).

Despite all that, though, I fell in love with the city in record time. I can’t pinpoint what made it so special, but I can say I really did have the time of my life. I met some amazing people, learned many things about other cultures, and gained an excellent new perspective on how the world works.

In Syntagma square after the first day of uni

I studied in the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Athens, which is an equivalent to our University of Applied Sciences. The atmosphere on campus was much more noisy and vibrant than what it is here, true to the Greek form of communication, and I did wonder how the students got any studying done among all the hustle and bustle. The Greek students do, however, have to work extremely hard at their studies, and they are not as lucky as we Finns are to be receiving monetary assistance from the government either.

View of Lycabettus Hill from the Acropolis

I was in Athens for the semesters of 2009 and 2010, which was the beginning of the troubles the nation is facing now. There were many strikes held during my time there, and during them many lectures were cancelled. The teachers did their best in making up for lost time, and all of my courses were very informative and useful. All the teachers were very professional and enthusiastic.

All in all my exchange year in Athens gave me some unforgettable experiences and taught me a lot of things about myself, other people, and life itself. I can’t wait to go back J.

At the Finnish Christmas party, downtown Athens

The writer is Janita Nurmi, who is about to graduate from the Degree Programme in Tourism and go on to conquer the world.

WSYA extended deadline July 31

2011-07-19T09:22:00.001+03:00

www.youthaward.org
Let's put UN Millennium Development Goals into action!
The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is an annual award and a network for young people using the internet, mobile phones or other digital media to put the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into action. Winners of the Award use websites to fight diseases, innovative radio technology to battle hunger, or social media to raise critical questions and connect those who do good.

WSYA was initialized at the UN World Summits 2003 and 2005, this is the fifth edition, The award is organised by the World Summit Award (WSA) network, which is represented in Finland by Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

All UN member state citizens under 30 (January 1st 2011) are welcome to participate. The competition has 6 categories:

Fight Poverty, Hunger & Disease
Education 4 All
Power 2 Women
Create your Culture
Go Green
Pursue Truth

Registration by July 31 at:

More information:
World Summit Youth Award
UN Development goals

Previous stories about WSYA

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Wiener Melange mit Apfelstrudel, Wiener Schnitzel mit Erdäpfelsalat, steirisches Kürbiskernöl

2011-07-04T14:35:00.000+03:00

Typical Viennese and Styrian culinary delights spiced with Austrian openness and friendliness

In June before my summer holiday started, I was priviledged to meet only friendly, professional and interesting people during my Erasmus international exchange week. I visited three different places of two different kind of educational institutions in Austria. I saw the beautiful Capital of Austria Vienna, Graz - Unesco City of Design and a small village in Styria in between and behind the beautiful and rocky mountain.

The other place of my visit was University of Applied Sciences = Fachhochschule and the other one was a small, private owned, flexible degree and continuation education institution. I met people from the International Office, Project Office and two different Degree Programmes. In the private education institution I was taken care of by the Managing Director and his team the whole day. My exchange week was very pleasant, interesting, educational, fruitful and cultural. We shared mutual interests and functions, also shared and compared some differences. I shared information about my project and got to know about their “green” projects and education. I got to see some laboratories as well. There can be a closer partnership in the future, if mutual interests are strong enough. Finland has good reputation in Austria and it is easy to function with Austrians, also with English. It was interesting to discuss about the difference and relations of Universities of Applied Sciences and Universities in both countries.

My keys and hints to a successful international week for you and your employer are:

- Good planning in advance, content, meetings, timetables, travel planning
- Good contacts and network inside your own organisation
- Enough good language and cultural skills
- Real interest of learning new things from different cultures, companies, people
- Good manners (of course)
- Openness to other cultures, habits and languages
- Openness to share your work content and experiences with others

My advantage was fluent German and knowledge of Austria from my background and prior to TAMK work experience. I could tell about TAMK, Tampere and Finnish education system in German. Even my new project task I could describe in German, though the project is a local project with Finnish material. It was a real joy for me to notice that I could participate in all discussions and degotiations in the local language. I noticed that the money and time I have spent on living abroad, visiting friends abroad, traveling for leasure and moving from another country to another was not lost or wasted. The proficiency was there under the skin or somewhere hiding in brain – what a joy and surprise! All language skills are investment and especially in Europe it is a great advantage to command also other languages than English.

I can warmly recommend TAMK staff and students to go abroad for studies, business or pleasure – even for a short time. I have noticed in the long run that the command of several languages have helped to find a job in a hard competition in Finland and abroad. Especially if you travel alone, you will get more advantage. It is good to see how things and life can be different in another culture or country. During my next trip abroad I will strengthen my Polish :)

They say that travel broadens the mind.

Happy Holidays! Schönes Urlaub ! Hauskaa lomaa !

Text and photos: Ursula Helsky-Lehtola

The writer is Service Coordinator in TAMK, Research & Development Services and since May 2011 substite as Project Manager in OPI ENEMPI “green energy and new learning environment project”

Staffordshire sent their ambassador

2011-06-30T14:09:00.007+03:00

On Sunday 26th of June 2011, TAMK had the great privilege to welcome Mrs Carol Southall from Staffordshire University Business School, UK.

Mrs. Southall, a lecturer in Tourism and Event Management spent four days in Tampere in order to get to know TAMK and the city of Tampere better.

After Sunday’s arrival and hopefully well slept night, Mrs. Southall was picked up from her hotel by the development manager Hanna-Greta Puurtinen on Monday morning.

At TAMK Mrs. Southall met various TAMK employees, including:
Customer Relationship Director Mr. Esa Ala-Uotila,
Development Manager Ms. Hanna-Greta Puurtinen,
Senior Lecturer in Marketing & International Coordinator Ms. Pirkko Varis,
Head of International Services Ms. Kirsi Tolvanen,
Project coordinator Ms. Katja Kivikangas,
Project coordinator Ms. Julia Sergeeva,
Project coordinator Mr. Ville Koiviola,
Project assistant Ms. Kirsi Leiniö and
Trainee Ms. Janita Nurmi.

TAMK employees briefly presented their roles and processes where as Mrs. Southall shared some light on Staffordshire University’s Degree Programme of Tourism and Event Management. The rest of the day was spent on in intensive discussions concerning the future collaborations between TAMK and Stafford University.

On Tuesday Ms Kirsi Leiniö and Ms Janita Nurmi of the R&D Services, took Mrs. Southall for a city tour around Tampere. The day began with a visit to Tampere Hall, where they were shown around and given information of the venue. Afterwards there was time for a short stroll around the adjacent park before they were picked up by their chauffeur for the day, Mr Ville Koiviola. He drove the group to the inspiring Demola of the New Factory, which is a centre for functional innovation for university students as well as companies. From there they walked to have lunch in the Laukontori market square. The menu included, of course, black sausage with lingonberry (cowberry) jam.

Behold the black sausage!

After lunch it was time for a walk along the shoreline over to the Pyynikki area. The silence and the view along the way were appreciated by all. After a quick look around Scandic Hotel Rosendahl they headed to the top of the Pyynikki observation tower to enjoy the view. The lovely, sunny day spent in Tampere naturally finished with coffee and the famous Pyynikki doughnuts.

What weather, what a view!

On Wednesday morning Mrs. Southall was taken to visit The Council of Tampere Region.
There Ms Southall accompanied by Julia Sergeeva, and Hanna-Greta Puurtinen, was able to meet Mr. Marko Mäkinen, the Manager of Regional Development Planning.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Southall’s visit in Finland was nearing its end. Time sure passes quickly when there is a lot to do and see.
With sad goodbyes, Mrs. Southall departed from Tampere Airport in the late afternoon.

We at TAMK thank you for your lovely visit and we are sure this was not the last time we will hear from you!

Text: Elias Suominen & Janita Nurmi
Photos: Kirsi Leiniö & Ville Koiviola

TAMK has helped me to fulfil my dreams

2011-06-27T10:14:00.008+03:00

Hazel Von Yancha

Coming to Finland is like a destiny that meant to be. To live abroad is not part of my master plan but Finland has helped me to embrace the opportunities to see life on the other side of the globe.

Philippines will always be my home. It is where I learned my first steps, the place I grew up, and the starting point of my dreams. As my parents used to say “we brought you to life but it is YOU, who can fulfill your life and dreams.” And now, I am enjoying every step I have taken and every move I have made while living in Finland for almost a decade now.

Hazel at the graduation ceremony of TAMK in May 2011.

The Degree Programme in Tourism has deepened my knowledge academically and practically. Nowadays, tourism industry is one of the most important sectors in the world economy. TAMK offers opportunities for students to learn different concepts of tourism and to be prepared professionally for the wide variety of requirements in tourism field.

Hazel with the award for the winning team from Finland in ICC IP in Bad Hindelang.

During my studies at TAMK I was able to participate in three intensive programmes. First, in the Destination Analysis held in Finland with a total number of 60 students of tourism from three European universities, the task of the students was to familiarize with culture and tourism of the selected tourist destinations in the Tampere Region. The second Erasmus IP I participated was held in Bad Hindelang, Germany. More than 40 participants from eight universities in Europe had different academic and professional backgrounds. The objective of the IP was to help students to familiarize with various working styles and cultural issues in order to find out how to communicate in intercultural business management situations. Lastly, I was given the chance to assist in the programme on Intercultural Communicative Competence in Zwolle, the Netherlands. My tasks as assistant taught me to distinguish the significance of respect in cultures in order to be successful in working environment.

Now that I have graduated from the Degree Programme in Tourism at TAMK I encourage people to study in Finland. The country has a wide selection of courses in preparation for bright opportunities in the future. Finland is a unique and beautiful country; people are friendly and trustworthy.

Text & Photos:
Hazel Von Yancha - Graduate from the Degree Programme in Tourism at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

Intercultural Communicative Competence in Zwolle, the Netherlands

2011-06-23T13:55:00.013+03:00

The participants from Finland, Italy, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Spain attended the ICC Erasmus intensive programme about intercultural communicative competence that was organized in Zwolle, the Netherlands between 28th of April and 8th of May 2011.
Some other international students from the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, Philippines, Russia and South Korea joined the IP, too.

The objective of the ICC IP was to bring students from different cultures to work together in multinational groups in order to find out how to communicate in intercultural business management situations and to familiarize with different working styles and cultural differences and similarities. Päivi Majamaa and exchange students Nicoletta Arese and Christina Deutsch were representing business studies from TAMK Virrat. Arja Niemi, Minea Tarkiainen, Herman Warjus and Hazel Von Yancha from the Degree Programme in Tourism were the student participants from Tampere University of Applied Sciences. Hazel was the assistant of Pirkko Varis, the coordinator of the group from Finland.

The team from Finland: Hazel, Päivi, Pirkko, Herman, Nicoletta, Minea, Arja and Christina.

The first task of the participants was to do country presentations which were evaluated based on originality and informative data of the presentation and creativity in presenting. Then, the participants were divided into multicultural teams in order to work with the case studies related to cross-cultural management. To be able to get to know each other and to build team spirit, the first activity of the multicultural teams was to do the scavenger hunt game. Completing the activity allowed the teams to explore the city centre of Zwolle and to see the culture and life style of the local people in Zwolle. Each representative was provided with a bicycle to ride from the camping area where they stayed to the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences where the lectures and activities took place and where students worked with the case studies. Aside from working intensively, the participants experienced celebrating the two biggest events in the Netherlands, the Queens Day and the Liberty Day.

Multinational team (Finland, Lithuania, France, Germany, South Korea.)

The main idea of the ICC intensive programme is to help students to be prepared for international business management environment and to get a better understanding in cross-cultural communication. The intensiveness of the schedule taught the participants the value of professionalism like setting aside individual differences and to work together as teams in order to get valuable results from the activities and case studies given.

At the end of the intensive programme, most of the representatives found new friends and international contacts. Each of us received a certificate based upon completing the tasks and active participation during the IP. Based from my observation as assistant, I’ve noticed that the participants had improved their performance in communication and they could acknowledge a mutual understanding between cultures. In general, each of us widened our knowledge in intercultural communication that gives us confidence to face the future challenges nationally and internationally.

Hazel shining.

Team activities.Even more team activities.

Team values presented by all teams.

Buffet at the camping site.

Hazel and the certificate.

Text and photos: Hazel Von Yancha