Chinese students visit Turku

Text: Mariana Dinis

At the invitation of Turku Business Region and organized by Megumi Hayashi, Development Manager of International Business Cooperation, 40 students from the Tsinghua University spent a day in Turku learning about higher education in Finland and the cooperation with working life. As part of the Tsinghua University’s Spark Student Innovation programme, the students were introduced to TUAS and the Turku Science Park.

During the day, the students attended lectures by Timo Holopainen, Leader (Business Development), Principal Lecturer (Sales) about TUAS and the Finnish higher education system which prompted a lot of questions from the audience around final year thesis and practical training periods. Ana Kupri-Karenmaa, International Relations Coordinator then presented TUAS’ Business Academy and the concept of student work overseen by mentors.

The TUAS session ended with visit to the Turku Game Lab and a presentation by Project Engineer Sami Laukkanen. Here, the Tsinghua students were able to interact with TUAS’ students and understand the type of real-life projects our students are involved in.

The Spark programme at Tsinghua University focuses on cultivating top creative and academic talents through extracurricular activities and interdisciplinary communication. A group of students with innovation potential are selected annually among sophomore students to take part in the programme. This programme encourages students to travel abroad and acquire new knowledge by visiting other universities, research institutes and enterprises.

We wish to thank all involved staff and students for their participation and time taken to promote TUAS to the visiting delegation. We look forward to develop potential collaborations with Tsinghua University in the future.