Mid-Week Mail, week 9

- PARLIAMENTARY READING OF NEW UNIVERSITIES ACT
- UNIVERSITIES ACT REFORM GETS MEDIA ATTENTION
- TYY UPDATES LINE OF ACTION
- TYY-TUKY CONSORTIUM WEBPAGES OPEN
- TYY-TUKY ELECTIONS FORUM
- EXAM AQUARIUM PROJECT UNDER WAY
- FINNISH FOR FUN

PARLIAMENTARY READING OF NEW UNIVERSITIES ACT 

The Finnish Government brought its proposal for the parliamentary reading of the new Universities Act last Friday. The objective of the proposal is to change the institute of universities in terms of finances and administrative models

According to the proposal of the act, universities, according to their choice, will become either private or publicly judicial foundations. The universities will raise their own funds as support from the State. The possible tuition fees for students coming from outside the EU/EEA area will be apart of the acquisition of these funds. 

It would be much easier for university administration, according to the proposal, to focus its power from a multi-member administrative body to private superiors, such as rectors and deans. Furthermore, according to the proposal, the size of the board would be smaller and persons from who are not university members would be selected to be half of the board members. 

From the preliminary debates on Friday 20 February, the act went on to a select committee to considerate and Parliament aims at getting the act approved before going on summer holiday. If the act will be approved by this timeframe, it will enter into force on 1 August 2009. Many university reforms that are already taking place, including the merger between the University of Turku and Turku School of Economics, are underway on the assumption that the act will be approved on schedule and, for the most part, in accordance with the proposal.  

TYY gave its statement last autumn on the act proposal, which, as far as it’s fundamental parts are concerned, has not changed after the statement was made. This statement is available on the TYY website. The Finnish Government’s proposal on the new Universities Act will be published on its webpages. 

Further information: 

TYY Secretary for Academic Affairs Tomi Nyström tyy-koposihteeri@utu.fi

TYY Executive Board Chair Jukka Vornanen tyy-pj@utu.fi
 

UNIVERSITIES ACT REFORM GETS MEDIA ATTENTION

The Universities Act reform got a great deal of media attention in the past week. TYY’s viewpoints were also brought forth in the media. Turun Sanomat published the opinion of TYY and the Student Union of the University of Tampere (TamY) on Tuesday, 17 February. The opinion criticised the proposal of implementing tuition fees for international degree students from outside EU and EEA countries.  

Another opinion was published in Turun Sanomat on Thursday, 19 February, which was signed by TYY and the Student Unions of the University of Helsinki (HYY) and Tampere (TamY). The opinion demanded that the draft of the act be changed in the parliamentary reading that the majority of members in the universities’ boards be internal groups of the universities. The text was also sent to other papers and to Members of Parliament. 

TYY was also mentioned in articles of several newspapers concerning the act reform and resistant demonstrations against it. Despite the various interpretations and even though TYY has taken a critical side on the act, TYY did not participate in organising demonstrations. 

TYY UPDATES LINE OF ACTION 

The start of updating the TYY political line of action was discussed at the Student Union Council February meeting. Once in its term of office, the Student Union Council’s job is to approve the line of action. The current line of action had been updates in December 2007. 

The student unions will merge in 2010 and the new student union’s Student Union Council, whose term will be 2009-2011, will be elected in April 2009. The new Student Union Council will begin its work after the elections and will decide on the new student union’s plan of action, budget and line of action for 2010. It will also select the 2010 Executive Board. The current TYY and TuKY Executive Boards are preparing the documents for approval.  

The TYY Executive Board is going to go reasonably through the preliminary debate with the current Student Union Council so that to is able to prepare the line of action to be approved in autumn according to TYY’s standpoints.
 

TYY-TUKY CONSORTIUM WEBPAGES OPEN 

The webpages on the merger between the Student Union of the University of Turku and the Student Union of Turku School of Economics are now available at http://www.tyy.fi/yhdistyminen/. Information on current issues concerning the merger, background information on the merger and FAQs are available on the pages. There are also important documents concerning the merger on these pages. 

There has also been a lot of media attention on the merger. Turun sanomat and the University of Turku eWert have both written articles on the subject. Next up on the menu are the join Student Union Council elections at the beginning of April. Preparations for the elections have already begun.

TYY-TUKY ELECTIONS FORUM

ISTU will be holding an informal discussion forum on the TYY-TuKY elections and being a candidate. Here’s your chance to talk about how to make a difference in your education and in international issues at the new University of Turku! 

ISTU welcomes you to this meeting on Friday, 27 February from 16.00 to 17.00. It will be held in the Turku-sali meeting room, Student House A (same building as the TYY Office), 2nd floor. 

Issues to be discussed: 

- background info on the UTU-TSE and TYY-TuKY mergers
- the importance of these elections for the new Student Union of the University of Turku
- how to become a candidate
- how to find or form an electoral coalition
- what ISTU will do to support your campaign!

This meeting will be open for everyone to share their thoughts, questions and ideas and there will also be refreshments! Welcome! 

More information is available on the ISTU website: http://org.utu.fi/tyyala/istu 

EXAM AQUARIUM PROJECT UNDER WAY 

A good crowd came to the Turku-sali meeting room to hear about the development of the exam aquarium project on Tuesday, 10 February. The interesting subject opened up an interactive discussion about, for example, how the possibility of dishonesty can be minimised in online examining. Consortium Coordinator Riitta Koskimies, in charge of the project, estimates that exam aquariums will be used in Turku at the latest next year. 

ESN News

ESN TYY has new webpages! You can find the brand-new site at www.esntyy.eu. There you'll find lots of information on ESN TYY and ESN International as well as the contact information of the ESN TYY Board. The upcoming events section is also worth checking out. Coming up is for example Bounce Around the World, the international party with music from all over the planet (Wednesday 4 March 2009 from 22 to 04 at The Club) and ESN Trip to Helsinki (Friday 13 March).

Keep updated by joining the ESN TYY mailing list at https://lists.utu.fi/mailman/listinfo/tyy-esn. 

FINNISH FOR FUN

The words peruna (‘potato’) and päärynä (‘pear’) both originate from the same Latin word for ‘pear’, pirum. The word päärynä is a loan word from the Swedish päron ‘pear’. The word peruna actually originates from pärun or pērun, Finland Swedish dialectic variants of päron. When the word peruna became known in Finland in the 18th century, it was first called “pear of the soil”, in Swedish jordpäron. Even though the vegetable itself originates from South America peruna has nothing to do with the county Peru!