Amazing traineeship in Finland

Hi guys! We’re students of European Civil Engineering Management from Poland. We’re on 4th year of studies and now we’ve time devoted to training. We wanted to use this time usefully so we thought of applying to the trainee exchange.

Here we are! Our laboratory of new generation concrete in Poland. In the front, from left:   Mateusz, Paweł.

Our first feeling when we received information that confirmed our participation in the traineeship was “brrrr… There is very cold!” but it didn’t scare us. We were determined because we knew that it will be important experience and a great adventure. Without thinking we booked a flight and planned the whole trip.

First stage of our trip: Train from Szczecin to Gdańsk

When we arrived to Tampere our first surprise was Finnish: all names, bus stops, shops, etc. look strange. Eg. ”Itsenäisyydenkatu” or “Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu”. We had no idea what it means.

Hmm...

First week we spent exploring the city by walking around. We were surprised how beautiful Tampere is: renovated, old buildings in good condition, a lot of water and a pretty flora, landscapes with rocks and lakes – this all made that we fell in love with Tampere!

View from the Observation Tower

Raatihuone - the City Hall of Tampere on Keskustori (Central Square)

We are doing our training in a construction company in Tampere, where we explore technology of civil engineering and gain the necessary experience. Work starts at 7 o’clock, and finishes at 3:30 pm. We are very satisfied with the work culture and approach to the safety of workers.

At work… “but first, let me take a selfie!”

Working on the construction site

First snow in Tampere

 To come to Finland for the traineeship was one of the best decisions in our lives!

Take care.
Mateusz (Matti) & Paweł (Paavali)





Text: Mateusz Bozek and Pawel Wozniak
Pictures: Mateusz Bozek and Pawel Wozniak

STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY EMBRACES CLOSER COOPERATION WITH TAMK

Visit at Burslem pottery

EU Erasmus funding for teacher exchange is a great thing. It offers you a possibility to go for an exchange practically any European country.  See the world with EU Money! 

But when the exchange period is only few weeks away the stress and agony begin to grow exponentially and eventually you blame yourself of ever even sending the application.  A week off your regular work means that the weeks before and after the exchange are much more packed than usual. At the same time you have to arrange your timetable, prepare lectures you need to give and find out facts about Finland in case somebody would ask questions like: how’s the unemployment rate in Finland? So why bother?

Sometimes you won’t even get where you wanted to. This happened to me this year: instead of an international week in Nice, France (nice weather!) for certain reasons I ended up in Staffordshire, England (not so nice weather!). Staffordshire University warmly welcomed me but the teaching arrangements took time, and when I set up for the journey I still had no precise teaching program. I had a fear that maybe I was not that welcome after all.

At Burslem pottery

I was as wrong as I could ever be. I got the warmest welcome by the staff of the Business faculty. Already the day I arrived I gave an ex-tempore lecture together with another visiting professor from Belgium, which was a very unique experience. During the week I had several inspiring meetings with local colleagues and met brilliant students, who even took me to a field trip to introduce their project with a local pottery firm, famous Burslem. I did give several lectures, too, but some that I had prepared had no use. Maybe next time.

The most memorable event was, however, attending the inaugural lecture of my host, Professor Jon Fairburn, about ‘How and why Staffordshire should engage with Europe’. Inaugural lecture is a prestigious occasion where a recently nominated professor gives his first public speech to a very authoritative audience. And in his speech Jon presented TAMK as an example for his university of how to engage with Europe. 

Stoke-on-Trent, where Staffordshire University is located, has rather similar history with Tampere. Both are old industrial cities which have lost their original industry base and now have to cope with the economic change. Stoke’s economic wealth was originally based on coal mining and pottery. Coal mines are long gone and the amount of potteries reduced to a fragment of what it used to be. Today Stoke is economically in much worse situation than Tampere.  Jon’s opinion is that their community has much to learn about how Tampere has re-invented itself, for instance by converting the old factory buildings to business, culture and entertainment centers. He seemed to have several ideas about joint projects in mind. It is worth mentioning that they have been very successful in getting EU funding for their projects! 

Professor Jon Fairburn giving inaugural lecture

Jon also emphasized that TAMK’s model of student- and teacher exchange and our capability of arranging as many as 8 international weeks per year are something Staffordshire University should learn from. Even though I have absolutely nothing to do with building such a good image about TAMK I felt quite proud being introduced to the audience that night.

So I have accepted the fact that the sun of South France was not meant for me, and feel very inspired in finding out what kind of joint projects we could do with Staffordshire. 

Text and photos: Tuula Andersson

Leadership, not only Management - Visit to Coventry University, UK

Coventry University has gone through a massive change during the past 6-7 years from a recruiting university seeking for students into a university that is especially chosen by the students. The university received the title University of the Year for Student Experience, 2015. The title Modern University of the year was given to it two times in a row for 2014 and 2015. These acknowledgements were given by The Times and The Sunday Times based on national League Tables for university rankings in the UK.

A group of us from TAMK were able to peek into what lies behind this success. What we found was strategic leadership and consistent work throughout the university. The committed leadership team had a vision of Coventry University being on top of the ranking lists for teaching and learning. It was not only about setting the goal. Money was invested in modern learning environments, in students services, teachers were supported in developing activity led learning, and the campus was developed into a truly multicultural one.

We had an opportunity to interview students from Qatar, Oman, Saudi-Arabia and three students from different parts of England. What especially impressed me was what the students said about their university. Their message was the same as the message we heard from the leadership: Coventry University  is an excellent place to study because of excellent teaching (“teachers are helping students to learn”), excellent student support, good facilities and the multicultural university community.

The student numbers have increased and now there are some 6 000 tuition paying ( 9 000 pounds per year) international students studying at Coventry University together with some 20 000 British students. This has created a surplus of income that makes the further strategic development of the university possible.

As Coventry is now the top university for student experience it needs to look into developing its research activities to move up the League Tables. Again the university has set a stretching goal and is aligning the leadership and management processes for reaching this goal. There is no wishful thinking. There are clear plans and procedures to follow this new chosen path. Money is invested, support is given to staff. Based on what we saw, heard and experienced, I am certain Coventry University will, again, be a different university in  five years known for its excellent student experience AS WELL AS it´s world class research.

Text: Aura Loikkanen,  Director, Higher Education Services

Local collaboration is the key to international impact!

Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Tampere University of Technology (TUT), the University of Tampere (UTA), and Police University College (POLAMK) comprise a dynamic and regionally and globally connected network of expertise. Each higher education institution in Tampere has its own area of expertise but they work in close collaboration to form one of Finland's most attractive and multidisciplinary consortia for education, research, and regional development called Unipoli.

The Unipoli agreement was already signed by the universities in 2006 but it is nowadays stronger than ever. The purpose of the agreement is to establish closer ties between the institutions, support efficient use of resources, and promote development of the city to an international hub of expertise. The Unipoli collaboration focuses on five strategic areas which are education, internationalisation, research, development, and support services.

Especially the network’s collaboration in international matters has many functional forms. Unipoli offers cross-institutional studying opportunities for incoming students, which means that a foreign student of TAMK can select courses taught in English also from the other Unipoli universities. There is also a broad selection of services for international students, such as a Friend Family Programme and a Mentoring Programme. As regards incoming teachers and staff Unipoli offers possibilities to see and experience the HEIs in Tampere broadly.

It is also in Unipoli’s interest to work together with the local companies as much as possible. And in practice this means that we yearly organise several events where international students and employers can meet and learn from each other.

The Unipoli cooperation was developed to support the international impact of higher education institutions located in the Tampere Region. And in my opinion we have certainly achieved the goal. I look forward to seeing what the future will bring and we have several new development ideas in mind. One of them is to create a Tampere Summer School brand together!

To find out more about the Unipoli cooperation please see http://www.unipolitampere.fi/

Text: Kirsi Tolvanen, Head of International Services

A great visit to further strengthen our collaborations

Between the 17^th and 21^st November I spent a week with many colleagues from TAMK using an Erasmus + Training exchange. As part of an ongoing collaboration where we have been discussing a variety of opportunities, my visit was specifically based around improving my knowledge of how TAMK (where Erasmus exchanges are successfully embedded in the university culture) implements the Erasmus programme and how they administer it. At Staffordshire University, we have always participated in Erasmus exchanges but have lacked a central overview and direction due to a variety of reasons and contextual issues. The central administration of Erasmus + exchanges has recently moved under my remit so it provides an ideal moment to learn key lessons surrounding the implementation of the programme to allow us to further build on the way in which we engage with Erasmus.

Before I had even arrived, I was already learning signs of good practise with the professional and efficient communication provided by Matti Pietila in explaining my proposed schedule, hotel and travel advice and some history regarding Tampere. When I did arrive, Matti came to meet me with a warm welcome and we continued where we left off with our conversations when we recently met in Prague at the EAIE conference.

The schedule involved meetings with all the key people involved in providing an excellent service to both incoming and outgoing students and staff through Erasmus exchanges at TAMK.

Overall, the visit has been excellent and particularly useful for me to learn good practise in Erasmus administration. We have many areas of common ground; one in particular is either ends of the issue of attracting UK students to engage in exchange. It seems we can both work together to show these students the benefits of exchanges which will hopefully lead to a balanced and sustainable exchange in the future. The visit has helped to validate areas I was already implementing whilst also giving me some new ideas. I hope also that I was able to add a slightly different perspective to your work which you may have found useful and hope to maintain this mutually beneficial exchanging of experience and knowledge into future work.

More than anything, it was a great pleasure to meet such nice people who gave up their time when I know how busy they are. You are all a credit to TAMK and I look forward to welcoming your staff to Staffordshire in the future.  

In particular I would like to thank Matti for developing an excellent schedule for my visit and for ensuring I found my way to each meeting.

Thank you all again. 

Text: Adam Hall, International Progression Partnerships Manager, Staffordshire University

Picture: Matti Pietilä