Opening of the Academic Year 2024: ”An investment in Finland's universities is an investment in the country's future”
The single biggest project at Hanken over the past academic year has been the development of the university's new long-term strategy For an International Finland and a Sustainable World.
The proportion of the working-age population is decreasing, and Finland needs to attract a large number of international talent to the country in order to retain today’s welfare model. Hanken has set a target of more than doubling the number of foreign degree students at Hanken during the next four years.
“While Hanken will continue to develop its portfolio of degree programmes in the coming years, going forward some of the focus will shift to integrating our international students in the Hanken community and in Finland. A central part of this will be internships in Finland in collaboration with our alumni and partners”, said Björkman.
“We sincerely hope that the negative discourse towards immigration in parts of our society will end. We urge our government to work towards streamlining the process of getting a visa to study in Finland and that Finland will automatically grant residency permits to those who graduate from the higher education sector.”
Björkman pointed out that it’s also crucial for Hanken to continue to graduate Swedish-speaking business school graduates with international experience.
“While the number of students going on exchange and gaining international experience has dropped drastically at other universities in Finland, we are proud that we have managed to integrate international experience as part of our study programmes.”
Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme that informs all of Hanken’s activities – including teaching, research, and support functions. Hanken offers an extensive range of courses with a sustainability and responsibility focus for degree students at Hanken, for students at other universities in Finland, and for life-long learners from industry interested in updating their knowledge.
“Our goal is that each student has the tools, the knowledge and the mindset to drive sustainable business practices for a sustainable world.”
Björkman noted that although enrolment at Hanken has increased, unfortunately the same cannot be said for funding. Between 2010 and 2023, state funding per master's degree in Finland decreased by 34 percent when inflation is taken into account. While universities are expected to further increase the number of master's graduates, there are few signs of increased core funding for the country's universities.
“An important message I want to send to the government is therefore that some of the very welcome government funding for research, development and innovation in the country should be directed towards increasing the core funding of universities. An investment in Finland's universities is an investment in the country's future.”
During the Opening of the Academic Year Hanken's Chair of the Board Christoph Vitzthum and the President of the Student Union Sofie Eriksson also offered their greetings. In addition, the recipients of Hanken alumnus Stefan Larsson's ‘Dare to Dream’ scholarship, Anna Hägerström and Aileen Ahlskog, were recognised. This autumn, Hanken started its 116th academic year in Helsinki and its 45th academic year in Vaasa.