Finland needs the best talent to succeed
02.09.2014
Aalto University’s President, Tuula Teeri, emphasised the importance of global competitiveness and know-how based on Finnish strengths during her address at the official opening of the university’s new academic year.
“If the best you can do is copy others, you will always be playing catch-up, following and not leading. World-class research teams play a critical role in generating genuinely new knowledge and training new graduates. Innovations are created by those who understand the problems and challenges facing society and the potential of their expertise to solve these problems,” said Teeri at the official opening held on the university’s Arabia campus on 2 September.
In today’s globally competitive world, the success of universities needs to be assessed globally, she continued.
“If we want to succeed as a nation, we need excellent researchers, the best anywhere in fact. It is of primary importance that the universities that Finland wants to maintain are international leaders in their areas of strength. It is also essential that university professors have good links to the business world and the rest of society. In this respect, Finland and Aalto University are already world-leading.”
Tuula Teeri also underlined the importance of a long-term perspective in making investments in the university sector.
“A lack of consistent direction in university funding will always have a negative effect. Developing cutting-edge expertise is expensive, but trying to live without it is even more expensive.”
Universities as drivers of development
The Chairperson of the Aalto Student Union Board, Lauri Lehtoruusu, also highlighted the importance of successful universities in today’s internationally competitive world.
“Finland’s strength and future will be based on freedom and responsibility, and these are the qualities that will foster our future experts and their individuality and ability to survive in global competition and generate added value for society during their studies and after. The university of the future must not be a factory for degrees or publications, but a driver for developing society and one that serves society at the same time.”
Matti Vanhanen, the Managing Director of the Finnish Family Firms Association, addressed the event on behalf of the business community. As Prime Minister, he played a central role in the creation of Aalto University and recalled those times:
“The additional funding that my government allocated as capital and for operational expenses was not granted as automatic extra funding for the university sector. The sector only received this funding because of the university reform process then under way, and a major part of this additional funding was provided because we believed in the concept behind Aalto University. This money was not taken away from other universities, it was simply extra money.”
In the Aalto Talk, Assistant Professor, Micro and Nanoelectronics Hele Savin outlined some of the new areas of international research under way in her field of solar energy and the opportunities that collaboration with the corporate world can offer research work. The Aalto Act of the Year Award was also presented at the event, to Professor, Textile Art and Design Pirjo Kääriäinen of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and Professor, Wood Chemistry Tapani Vuorinen of the School of Chemical Technology, in recognition of their cross-disciplinary work on the CHEMARTS project – a project that has developed a number of new concepts for the bioeconomy of the future by combining design, branding, and the sciences of natural materials.