In the spring of 2021, we published our strategy that highlights the importance of raising UCPori’s profile, increasing its visibility and impact and building closer collaborations with regional stakeholders. The strategy identifies a sense of community, impact, diversity, openness and critical thinking as UCPori’s values. The strategy is based on the strategies of Tampere University and the University of Turku. In addition to an outward-facing strategy, we drew up an internal strategy that emphasises internal collaboration, a sense of community and the development of a distinctive identity for UCPori. We identified development measures to meet the objectives of both strategies and assigned related responsibilities. The working groups within UCPori have frequently discussed the strategic measures in the year under review.
It was UCPori’s turn to coordinate the network of Finnish university consortia in 2021. The network members discussed the role and position of university consortia in the national higher education system. Much of the discussion in the Satakunta region focused on a review into the current state and future development of higher education, commissioned by Regional Council of Satakunta and compiled by President Emeritus Kalervo Väänänen.
In the autumn of 2021, the Ministry of Education and Culture awarded an additional grant for developing university consortia. UCPori’s share of the funding amounts to €541,000. The funding will be used to move forward the development measures identified in Kalervo Väänänen’s review. We will, for example, carry out a pilot project to offer engineering education to students who have graduated from upper secondary schools as a collaborative undertaking between Tampere University and the University of Turku and develop multidisciplinary education in social services and healthcare.
Research
Tampere University’s research groups operating at UCPori maintain close ties with the other units at UCPori and external stakeholders.
Examples of collaborative projects within UCPori include the Miitti project (Tampere University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and the University of Turku’s Faculty of Humanities), which studies young people’s mass gatherings as a manifestation of a sense of community and local culture, and the DigiNature, Digi-ET and Roboeco projects that explore smart travel and the regional automation cluster, respectively (Tampere University’s Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences and the Faculty of Management and Business, and Turku School of Economics).
Our key partners include Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, the business development company Prizztech and Pyhäjärvi Institute. Our projects have involved numerous companies in the Satakunta region as partners. Tampere University’s Faculty of Social Sciences had active collaborations with the City of Pori regarding, among other things, the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing health and social services reform in Finland. The researchers working at UCPori took part in several Horizon 2020 calls.
Education
In 2021, we planned new master’s programmes in information technology and computer sciences in collaboration with the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences. The programmes will become available at Tampere University, the University Consortium of Seinäjoki and UCPori. The first students will be admitted in the autumn of 2022.
The Faculty of Social Sciences has developed pathways that are designed to help students who graduate from Satakunta University of Applied Sciences to gain entry into UCPori’s master’s programmes in social work.
Tampere University signed a three-year contract with ESIEA, a private higher education institution in France, to offer a study module that carries 30 credits to a group of students in each spring semester. The contract continues the existing collaboration between Tampere University and ESIEA.
We established closer collaboration with upper secondary schools in the Satakunta region and contributed to public discussion of the activities to promote education-driven migration.
Societal impact
The researchers and teachers working at UCPori participate in planning regional development programmes and serve on working groups that are tasked with promoting RDI activities.
Our researchers are regularly featured on regional media (such as a series of articles in the newspaper Satakunnan Kansa) and host webinars and discussion events for the public. Some of the highlights of 2021 were the Studia Generalia lecture series titled Ende und Beginn that discussed the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the SuomiAreena event focusing on the role of university consortia, the TiedeAreena event on 24 September and the Wellness Technology Expo between 9 and 10 November.
The FORE UCPori concept was launched in the autumn of 2021 to systematically build collaborative relationships between UCPori and the region’s companies and thereby drive research and innovation across the Satakunta region.