TAMK hosted Erasmus Intensive Programme in Sustainable Tourism

Grilling sausages in Seitseminen National Park

The last two weeks we had extremely nice and instructive time during the project course about Sustainable tourism management! Course’s aim was to analyse three different destinations in Tampere from sustainable point of view: city centre, Pyynikki and Seitseminen national park. So we had a great time by making these destinations familiar for our visitors from Spain and United Kingdom! Based on our experiences and lectures we had to make a presentation in mixed groups about our proposals for those destinations.

On a first day all three nationalities had presentations about their culture which was really interesting and good opening for the weeks. The visitors could even taste a little piece of Finland: Finnish salmiakki, but it didn’t get so great admiration. I just have to wonder why!;) We Finns also arranged a welcoming party where everyone had a good chance to make new friends and enjoy their time.

Our first destination was city center where the majority of students went to see Tuomio church, the Main Square, Finlayson, market hall and Vapriikki-museum. There was a little snow storm during our walk, but we solved the problem by drinking hot cup of coffee in Vapriikki-museum till snowing was over.

The trip to our second destination, Pyynikki and Pispala area, was a whole new experience for the majority of our visitors! They were thrilled about wooden residential area of Pispala, tasted the best donuts of Tampere in Pyynikki observation tower and walked on an icy like for the first time. In addition the weather was lovely because sun was shining.

Walking on a lake in Pyynikki

City Tour and Tallipiha

Our final destination was Seitseminen national park where we Finns arranged different kind of activities outdoors. First there was a short document about the nature of Seitseminen and after that we had a walk in a forest. Few people took a sled with them and there was a lot of screaming when they went down the hills! After our nice walk we grilled some sausages on a campfire and enjoyed our delicious picnic lunch. Before leaving we played football in the snow, skied a little bit and played Finnish game mölkky.

Team working

After long days of teamwork finally every team succeed and made good presentations. Now it is time for the final party and we have to say good bye.

Writer: Niina Väisänen, student in Tourism in Ikaalinen Campus

Exchange students' opinions: "The best country to study"

"Finnish people are open, and nature is beautiful", "Prices are too high", "The best country to study"

These were some of the answers when the students from Ylöjärvi Upper Secondary School did a small survey of exchange students' experiences. The survey was a part of their English language studies and around 20 TAMK exchange students were interviewed. The answers are presented in greater detail below.

Local students got a good opportunity to practice English language when interviewing Oanh Hoang and Bram Cooreman (behind).

Why did you choose Finland / TAMK?

• Finnish people have good English skills
• Likes cold climate
• Finland was the most interesting option
• A Friend was in Finland 5 years ago
• Change to home country (2 answers)
• Likes drinking alcohol and sauna
• Finland was the best country to study IT engineering
• Nature
• Never been in Finland
• Had been previously in an exchange in southern Europe and wanted to go to a different kind of country
• Tampere was the biggest city in the alternatives

Have you found any positive sides about TAMK?

• Good equipment
• Good organizing
• Food (x 3)
• Library (x 2)
• New friends
• Modern
• Good opportunities
• Good team spirit
• Cheap
• Teaching is good
• Studying is relaxed
• Classrooms are nice
• Good transportation probabilities
• People are open minded (x 3)
• Good apartments

What negative sides have you found about TAMK?

• Everyone isn’t ready to talk with exchange students (x 3)
• School is unclear
• Library gets closed too early
• Food
• Not yet (x 6)
• Some of the teachers don’t understand everything

What is the most valuable thing about studying abroad?

• Experiencing other cultures
• Learn to live on one’s own
• More choices to major in
• Culture
• New people
• Now I can compare my own country to other countries
• Gets more motivation on studying

What kind of differences there are between Finnish culture and your own?

• Almost the same
• You have to stop the bus to get off
• Finnish people are friendlier
• Finnish people need more space of their own

Could you consider working in Finland?

• Yes if it wouldn’t be so cold
• Yes
• Yes, but darkness scares

How would you compare the Finnish education to your own?

• In Finland it’s more independent and more comfortable
• Can’t compare
• Doesn’t study so much because she is on-the-job learning
• Studying in Greece is different because of the economy crisis
• In Finland studying is more practical
• In Finland studying is economically supported
• Much smaller studying groups in Finland

TAMK's 2nd International Week in RDI

It's our pleasure to welcome you to attend TAMK’s 2nd International Week in Research, Development and Innovation which will take place in Tampere, Finland on 22-26 April, 2013.

The theme of the week is "Future Calls for Funding – Living Labs in Horizon 2020".

The international week is aimed at RDI staff of TAMK’s partner universities as well as for other partner organisations involved in RDI activities with TAMK.

The programme of the week will include interesting study visits as well as sessions and workshops on focus areas of EU’s future RDI agenda based on the interests of the participants, e.g.

• health and demographic change, senior services
• resource efficiency and sustainability
• intelligent industrial vehicles and machines
• inclusive, innovative society, including ICT, media and culture
• entrepreneurship, including wellbeing entrepreneurship.

The registration is still open until 15 March 2013.

Warmly welcome!

R&D and Education Services at TAMK
Contact person: Ms Ursula Helsky-Lehtola, ursula.helsky-lehtola(at)tamk.fi

How to improve study success - Dutch students benchmarking in Tampere

The TAMK Kuntokatu Campus was like asleep during the holiday week, but the vibrant discussions started immediately when the group of Student Council members from Delft University of Technology arrived here yesterday morning. The Dutch engineering students were on a benchmarking trip in the Nordic countries in three destinations: Copenhagen, Trondheim and Tampere. The core question of their visit was how to improve the study success.

The President of Central Student Counsil - ORAS, Enne Hekma, explaining the aims of their research during the trip

 

In the Netherlands the current demands for reforming the higher education are similar to ours in Finland. Decreasing average study duration and changing the student state funding system are hot topics in both countries. Also the governmental budget for Dutch universities is more and more performance based, measuring education quality and study success. 

However, in the discussion with Student Union Tamko representatives, Henri Mäntysaari and Kristian Staack, we noticed also differences in the students’ situations. Students have different attitudes towards the study loans and the costs of studies also vary between the countries. 

The sunshine and lovely scenery over the Lake Näsijärvi made our guests to smile

The other important topic of the day was the working life connections. TAMK Student Recruitment Services presented what kind of support and options TAMK offers for the students. Also the concept of New Factory with Demola and Protomo environments was introduced. Our guests seemed to be thrilled with this unique combination of multidisplinary team work, creativity and working life contacts. Hopefully they got some new ideas to bring back home! Best of all, sharing experiences helps the hosts to see the own system from a new perspective as well.

During the week in Tampere the group visits also University of Tampere, Tampere University of Technology, Nokia and enjoys the winter activities.

Stylish way to promote Student Council's theme colors

Text: Kaisa Merilahti, International Services

Photos: Tuula Härkönen & Kaisa Merilahti

TAMK International Week for Engineering 2013

The 3rd International Week for Engineering took place at the Main Campus of TAMK on 11-14 February. The week comprised classes given by the visiting professors, company visits, a Project Workshop, outdoor activities and social programme in the evening.

The Degree Programmes of Engineering, Technology and Natural Resources hosted 16 guest lecturers from ten partner universities of TAMK. The visitors came from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. Many of the visitors attended the TAMK International Week for Engineering for the 2nd or the 3rd time, and we were happy to welcome also several new colleagues to the event.

                                                     International Week for Engineering 2013 participants and main hosts

The visiting lecturers gave 24 lectures in English to the students and staff of TAMK, and some 600 engineering students participated in the teaching sessions. 

The thread of the week was to highlight the different learning environments of TAMK. On Monday, the round-tour took the guests to the labs, classrooms and the new library of TAMK which was followed by a visit to Demola later that same day. The Demola open learning environment for the local university students aroused a lot of interest among the visiting professors.

                                                             Bernard Garvey presenting Demola

Fastems, another off-campus engineering learning environment of TAMK, was visited on Wednesday. Product Manager, Mr Janne Konttila hosted the guests and told about Fastems and its long-standing cooperation with TAMK. Senior Lecturer, Mr Tomi-Pekka Nieminen from TAMK presented the training centre of Fastems and the facilities that it offers to the TAMK students in Mechanical and Production Engineering.

                                                            Janne Konttila telling about Fastems

The guests had a chance to experience the Finnish winter by attending outdoor activities organised by Mr Esko Tirkkonen. Many of the visitors tried Nordic walking and skiing in the snowy landscape of Kauppi sports park and its surrounding forests.

                                  Joan, Jan-Philipp, Pamela, Hans, Sophie and Franz admiring the Finnish winter scenery

Meeting new people and professional networking are an important part of International Weeks. What could be a better way to get to know a new colleague than to cook and dine together? Senior Lecturer, Mr Petteri Tikkanen and his brilliant team of 1st-year students in Hospitality Management steered the group of visitors in their preparation of a three-course meal at the Åkerlundinkatu Campus of TAMK. The dinner menu featured some Finnish delicacies like zucchini soup, marinated perch filet and local cheeses.

                               Inter-university cooperation at its best: Hedda, Mike and Jan-Philipp cooking and having fun 

It's already a tradition of the TAMK International Week for Engineering that the Wednesday evening is spent at Hangaslahti. The guests enjoyed the smoke sauna and ice-swimming as if that was a part of their daily life! Many dipped into the lake more than once. The evening was concluded with a multi-national sing-along in Flemish, German, Russian and Finnish.

                                                                What shall we sing next?

All in all, the week was a success, and the guests' first impressions very positive. The ideas for the further development of the TAMK International Week for Engineering were much appreciated by the hosts. The feedback will be taken into account when planning a similar event for the next year. See you back at TAMK for the International Week for Engineering 2014!

Text: Riku-Matti Kinnunen
Pics: Tuomas Mikola & R-M. Kinnunen