A year of preparing for the future
Out of our 2023 figures, the 1,804 Bachelor’s degrees, the 387 Master’s degrees and the 277 graduates from our professional teacher education programme are by far the most significant. They are an indication that we are moving past the coronavirus era. Students are graduating and we are inching closer to the performance targets set by the Ministry of Education and Culture. TAMK has a high profile and considerable influence in Pirkanmaa, and over 70% of our graduates find employment in the region.
At TAMK, we also advocate with our strategic spearheads. The international aspect plays a major role in our operations – approximately one thousand foreign students help make Tampere a more culturally diverse hub of talent that serves the needs of working life. Work placements, theses and RDI projects help strengthen the continuous reformation of working life and society at large. Keeping it on the down low, we have also continue to reform our education offering, which helps provide our students with new opportunities and break the traditional barriers between professions. With our strategic spearheads, we strive to highlight the shared activities between the HEI community and the stakeholders.
We continued to implement our ‘Campus development 2030’ project with the construction work of main campus serving lines, auditoriums and the main entrance. The main entrance and parts of the auditorium extension will be completed in 2024. By upgrading the serving lines and auditoriums, we want to streamline the lunch experience. We will be seeing the end results in 2024.
Early in the year, change negotiations were a hot topic at TAMK. As costs continued to increase, core funding from the state was no longer sufficient to operate the same way as in the past. Personnel expenses account for over two thirds of all TAMK’s costs, and the final third largely consists of essential fixed expenses. Therefore, we were forced to make adjustments to our workloads and personnel expenses. The Ministry of Education and Culture encourages institutes of higher learning to apply for external funding, and with the changes we have made we are now better prepared to address this challenge.
I strongly believe that no further change negotiations are needed if we continue the good work. This is why we have turned the page from change to development: We as reformers of TAMK from 2023 to 2025.
During the ‘TAMK Day’ organised in the autumn, with actor Tom Pöysti and musician Mato Valtonen facilitating, our personnel was asked to consider the foundations of well-being. They reminded the attendants that ‘we’ is the most important word in our lexicon. Your life is what happens between the dates inscribed in your gravestone. The feeling of shared joy is an outcome of doing things together, ethical practices, optimism, enthusiasm, being prepared, willingness to learn, encouragement, and sometimes going the extra mile. We can leave envy, resentment and bitterness behind and surprise both ourselves and our colleagues “by playing in the same band or even playing the same song.”
These short summations about how we need each other seem quite simple. We will also not exclude students from our HEI community. Studying, working and researching together is at the core of UAS pedagogy and our community.
For this, we extend our thanks to our entire HEI community! We have laid a good foundation for 2024. In 2023, we managed to ensure that TAMK continues to operate as Finland’s most popular University of Applied Sciences, both now and in the future.
Text: Tapio Kujala, President and CEO
Editors: TAMK Communications
Image: Konsta Leppänen