On site – Lisboa, Portugal

Square Rossio

Greetings to all from Lisbon, Portugal! I arrived here late last night, after travelling for hours and getting delayed in Paris for bad weather conditions. I’m here for the International Week organized by our Portugese partner, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa. There are almost 40 of us participating the week from all over Europe and I was happy to see some people from other partner universities as well.

After a well rested night, I found from the breakfast room some Finnish collegues from Metropolia in Helsinki by eaves dropping their conversation!  Together we made it to the campus which was located north of the city center. After giving my presentation about TAMK and listening to others, we had a great sightseeing tour. Lisbon is a beautiful city, in its own black and white style.

I’m about to explore some more of the city during the week, as well as have plenty of good practice to come home with.

I’ll be checking in with the full report after I’ve landed safely back home!

Text & Picture: Noora Järventaus, International Services

Erasmus 25 years

To celebrate the 25 years of the Erasmus programme, CIMO wants to give out overall patches to Erasmus exchange students. 

International services are giving out these patches to TAMK students that are going for Erasmus exchange during the academic year 2012-2013.  

So, if you're going to Erasmus exchange next fall or spring, come and get your overall patch for free from the room B1-44 during the opening hours:  Mon-Wed 12.30-15.30, Thu-Fri 9.00-12.30. 

Non-teaching staff week in Malmö

Happy clatter of discussion in the hotel lobby this morning was a good sign - we are all looking forward to what is to come (although our group decided that we are not "morning people"). Nearly 30 members of university staff from libraries, career services, PR & communication services and international services are gathering for a week to exchange ideas and experiences... We shall see what happens! Wednesday will focus on my expertise, student mobility, and on Thursday we will try to combine that with special media and its possibilities. Tomorrow we will see student presentations on international projects that they have taken part in. It will ne good to hear what the students' view on the gained benefits has actually been. Malmö university has made us very welcome, and the city seems charming. The hotel could be called "quaint" but I did not come here to stay in my room!

International buzz at TAMK

During this semester TAMK will host 9 international weeks. Some of them have been already, some are running as we speak and some will take place later this spring. This week there is international week of School of Vocational Teacher Education and next week it is turn for RDI international week. 

We also got visitors from the international weeks that were held in University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology. About 35 guests from all around the Europe got to know a little bit about TAMK. 

Our International Coordinator, Noora Järventaus hosted the visitors together with trainee, Sanna Hosike for few hours yesterday. Noora introduced TAMK to the visitors focusing on the international side of TAMK. After the TAMK introduction, it was time for lunch. As it was Thursday, Campusravita was offering among other things pea soup. It might not look really fascinating for foreigners, but Noora was able to convince the guests that it is one of the traditional Finnish foods worth trying. We were happy to see that many of the visitors took the chance. The experiences were unforgettable.

The visitors were really interested about TAMK and the exchange opportunities we can offer for them and vice versa. Even though in Finland UAS’s, Universities and Technical Universities differ from each other, the system in many European countries is not quite the same. For example TAMK and UTA have quite a few same partner universities.

We were glad to have the visitors of TUT and UTA’s international weeks to come and see TAMK as well during their stay in town.

The annual International Week for Non-Teaching Staff of TAMK will be arranged on 11 – 15 June 2012 for the fourth time. We hope to see as eager faces during our international week as we saw during this visit. 

Text: Sanna Hosike, Trainee, International Services

Orientation for outgoing students – success once more!

West Finland HEInet organized an annual orientation day for outgoing students and trainees for the 13^th time. The event was held at University of Tampere and brought together approximately 450 new hopefuls and veterans of internationalization.

The orientation day offers vital information for exchange students and trainees, and trains them to deal with situations which may arise during the exchange period. Previous days have included lectures about adapting to a new culture, personal safety abroad, and offered a chance to get more information about organizations and companies useful for an exchange student. Some of the lectures are aimed to all participants and some of them are host country or continent specific offering a possibility to present questions to students who already have completed their exchange period.

This year’s speakers included Dr. Teemu Palosaari from the Tampere Peace Research Institute and Ms Mirja Sipinen, a joint correspondent in Moscow for STT (the Finnish News Agency) and MTV Media. The focus of both speakers was on personal safety while abroad. The speakers emphasized the importance of critical thinking towards news that are spread in tabloids and remembering to follow the guidelines given by the authorities in crises abroad.

According to the received feedback – as anticipated – the afternoon country group discussions between past and future exchange participants were the most rewarding part of the day for the new outgoing students. First-hand knowledge on how things work in the planned destination is priceless.

Big thanks to everyone involved in making the day a great success once more!