Last May I made a promise to write a blog about what it is like to be part of the structure of the Finnish higher education system as a head of a degree program. I started in the beginning of this August as the Head of the International Business Degree Program at TAMK so (re-)starting the blog has been already due for a couple of weeks as I’ve been wondering what is the best platform for the blog – writing on our university blogs or personally. Enough wondering, time to start writing!
I decided to use my own personal blog so I can express myself freely. So if I piss you off, don’t take it personally. I’m only doing it in the best interests of the Finnish education system.
I’m actually a bit bewildered on where to start. There’s so much to write about from the first three weeks already. Both good and bad. As you know, TAMK is now starting the first full academic year as ‘the new TAMK’ with old TAMK and PIRAMK more or less merged.
Today we had the opening ceremony of the academic year – first one for the new TAMK and there was also an opening ceremony for a new wing on the main campus. There were a lot of invited guests including Minister of Education Henna Virkkunen who gave the main speech in the event.
I went into the ceremony with high expectations of getting some new ideas and direction. What’s the next big thing in education? What is the Ministry of Education thinking about the changes around us, about the skills the next generation of students (including those who started today) are going need? Things we need to react to as all of our degree programs are renewing our curriculum this year.
Well… I didn’t get much on those. Apparently the big thing is the merger and the administrational model. We are now an example to the other Finnish UASs’. Speakers kept repeating how strong we are now. If you say something a thousand times with zero passion you get zero. Reading from the paper doesn’t help either. If you invite staff and students to a ceremony like this – speak to them. They’re smart people and see through meaningless jargon.
There was one great point in our Rector’s speech I don’t think I had heard before. He said that we (universities) don’t compete in Finland anymore – the real competition is abroad. I couldn’t agree more.
So what are we going to do about it?
