Blankets, Art and Spies - Final day in Tampere

The final day began with a visit to Tampere University library. This is the nearest University to town, with 25,000 students, it is the oldest. All University libraries in Finland are freely open to the public, this includes borrowing and walk-in access to some of the electronic resources. The colleagues showing us around today were proud of their openness, Finnish are big library users. The library conveyed an observance of the needs of students who prefer the more traditional aspects of a library services, such as quiet study, and desk space for printed books, as well as those with progressive tastes, large armchairs with window views, networked online bookable group study rooms and areas punctuated with gym balls, quite common in libraries here. 

The library regularly canvasses online and printed feedback, via the still popular post-its on library services. This has resulted in providing blankets in the cooler parts of the library and larger separate silent study areas for those with laptops from those that find the sound of typing distracting. Signage around the library clearly articulates noise levels. Like Staffordshire, TUT is moving towards more electronic access to resources. They also use the libguides software to deliver online resources and Summon for discovery, and like ourselves are trying to address the challenge of the increasing demand for textbooks by students.

 

During the afternoon there was another opportunity to see more of Tampere's cultural highlights. This included a visit to the Art Museum which currently has an exhibition celebrating Finnish women artists in early twentieth century modernism. The  Here We Come!  exhibition asks why we know only a few Finnish women artists of the early 20th century, such as Helene Schjerfbeck, Ellen Thesleff, Ester Helenius and Sigrid Schauman, when the majority of art students, were women, many of them becoming professionals in the arts. 

This was followed by a trip up Näsinneula observation the tower. Overseeing Lake Näsijärvi. It was built in 1970–1971 and was designed by Pekka Ilveskoski. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland and the tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries at a height of 168 metres (551 ft). It provides excellent panoramic views of Tampere and its two lakes, and as far as the infamous town of Nokia. 

The afternoon concluded with a visit to the Spy museum the world's first public museum of international espionage. Although fascinating with some real curiosities. it appears slightly culturally disconnected from Tampere and it was refreshing to leave this basement museum to take a walk along Tampere's rapids and look out on the industrial highlights of the Manchester of Finland.

Plans are underway to join Tampere University,  Tampere University of Applied Sciences, and Tampere University of Technology the project is called T3, although the 3 Universities are still working out the details of the merger. Details can be found at
https://www.tampere3.fi/en/.  I wish the colleagues at all 3 Universities that have given us such a warm welcome on our Erasmus exchange trip the very best with their future plans.

Closer to Home Day 3 Visit to Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Today the focus of our visit was on the Student Counselling, Open Science and Research and Information Literacy and eResources.  Many aspects of these services closely relate to the services provided by Staffordshire University.

Library and Information Services and Student Counselling Services are based in Higher Education Services, along with International Services, Study Services, Communication Services, Administration and Event Services and Sports Services.  Digitisation of Education, the Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences and Vocational Training are based in Development and Quality Management.

The first service we met in our schedule was Student Counselling.  Student Counselling provides signposting to online and face-to-face resources and support for students for the duration of their studies,  rather than the provision of academic skills, which we thought was initially the purpose of this service. Students' relationship with counselling begins before they start their course, where they are directed to online information providing overviews of course content and how they will study. Student engagement with the service carries on through induction to the completion of the course, and links with student and teacher tutors. Academic skills development is integrated in the curriculum in the first year. Students with disabilities have learning plans similar to Staffordshire's Learning Support Agreements, these plans provide up to 20 hrs of extra help during every academic year.

The second half of the day focused Library and Information Services. Firstly Open Science and Research , where we were given an overview of Finland's strategic approach to encouraging open access publishing. Finland is endeavouring to articulate the benefits of engaging in an Open Culture and each year a questionnaire is circulate to institutions to feedback on their open access activities. The responses are used to situate Universities on the nation's open access hierarchy. The framework and open science activities can be found on Finland's Open Science and Research web site http://openscience.fi. This useful overview of Finland's approach to open access and the challenges of engagement reflects much of the work being undertaken internationally including that at Staffordshire, I said I would send our workflows and links to the guidance and support we are developing.

In the afternoon we met with TAMK Information Specialists responsible for information literacy and electronic resource access and discovery. Again the similarities between services provided at Staffordshire and those at TAMK were apparent, there is definitely a common professional practice language. The University offers up to 6hrs of information literacy workshops a year, for each level, for which uptake varies from subject to subject, nursing courses make the most use of this, which includes development in systematic review skills. The library is working towards improving electronic access to resources, although there are fewer ebooks in Finnish TAMK provides English ebooks and also makes use of open access publications.  Details of their services can be found at http://www.tamk.fi/en/web/lib/home. Colleagues at TAMK were particularly interested in our Assigment Survival Kit and our online guides.

The day was concluded with a visit to the Amuri Museum of Workers Houses in Tampere. Blocks of wooden houses which, like the terraced house in Stoke-on-Trent, were built for factory workers. Eventually, again like many of our terraced houses, theser were replaced by newer homes, in Tampere these new homes were low rise apartment buildings. An apt conclusion to a day of sharing more common experiences with our colleagues at TAMK.

Sun Sport and Lenin Day 2 in Tampere

It has been another glorious sunny day in Tampere and today we were also honoured with an increase in temperature. The weather was fully embraced by the Tampere residents evidenced by the busy streets tonight as they basked outside the bars and cafes.

Day 2 of Erasmus began with a tour on TAMK's new sports facilities. Sport is very much integrated into student wellbeing at the University, students can choose from a range of activities, from, wall climbing to spinning, and can also get taster sessions of sports they have not tried before. TAMK is now also looking into why some students are not engaged in sports and incentives to improve their participation.

During the latter half of the morning we were given an overview on TAMK's digital strategy. With a focus on, flexible learning, research and development, analytics and skills development, I could see commonalities with the digital transformation work currently being undertaken at Staffordshire. A progressive strategic initiative is students working on authentic digital projects for the University. One of the projects is the development of the Smart Campus, using data and narratives illustrating how students expect the campus to develop in the future. All student project outputs become an integrated part of the University infrastructure and students receive accreditation for this. The intention of these projects is not only to develop students' creative skills but to also enable students to become change agents. The University also has a network of staff digital mentors who have volunteered to work with other staff to develop their digital skills, similar to the digital champions network that is about to be established at Staffordshire.

In the afternoon we visited Tamper University of Technology, known as TUT and their new library. TUT is Finland's second-largest university in engineering sciences. The sleek light rearrangeable furniture was similar to that in TAMK's library, together with the glass engraved door panels.  The descent to the library from the refectory is a Lloyd Wright-esque nod to MOMA. With open learning spaces, bean bagged group study rooms, mobile phone booths, 3 D printers and a virtual reality suite, the library is a combination of practical facilities to suit student needs and innovative experimentation, evidencing its ambition to make the library an adaptable space to enhance the student learning experience.

We concluded the afternoon with a visit to a museum dedicated to someone who some may argue was a contributing architect of modern politics, Lenin, although the museum provides a lot to reflect upon regarding this.  Established in 1946 by the Finland–Soviet Union Society, today it is run by the The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas, it was the first museum dedicated to Lenin outside the Soviet Union. Located in the Tampere Workers' Hall. Built in 1900, the building hosted underground meetings of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905 and 1906. At the 1906 meeting, Lenin met Josef Stalin in person for the first time. It has a permanent exhibition with material related to Lenin's life and the history of the Soviet Union.  A highly recommended cultural stop for anybody visiting the city and a satisfying conclusion to our 2nd day, in the city where the sun is still setting at 11pm.

Attractive Simplicity that's TAMK

This week I am on an Erasmus exchange trip with a colleague, to TAMK, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, the sun has just set and its 11 o'clock at night, that's Finland. Colleagues from TAMK visited Staffordshire University last year to share experiences, and it is great to have the opportunity to do likewise. TAMK is a multidisciplinary university focusing on promoting wellbeing and health,  business and production, together with learning and creativity, so to some extent there are some similarities with Staffordshire. Like Stoke-on-Trent, Tampere is also redefining itself culturally after overcoming the decline of a heavy industrial past. The University's mission, like Staffordshire, is working for the best of their student and for their working life. With such common ground pooling experiences and sharing challenges has been both reassuring and rewarding.

For somebody like myself, who loves modernist architecture and design, visiting Finland and TAMK is a wonderful experience. From the Marimekko napkins on Finnair to the mesmerising low hanging lampshades, it is difficult to resist taking photographs at every opportunity. As expected TAMK is the picture of elegant modern simplicity, complete with innovative design features. Clean straight corridors, furniture that is more than a nod to Alvar Aalto's timeless creativity and room purposes engraved in the glass panels of the doors.  Well thought out details such as table hooks to hang chairs on in the refectory to make cleaning easier, height adjustable desks for staff and students and Service Street, an internal walkway that is home to all student services, including an IT fix shop,  campus shop, admissions, library and study skills.

As the amber glow continues in the sky at 11.30 and I look out at the double decker resting train from Helsinki, I am very much looking forward to day 2, I am just hoping my phone can cope with my weighty album of modernist fascination.