Аалтогийн Их Сургууль

Aalto University (Finnish: Aalto-yliopisto; Swedish: Aalto-universitetet) is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The close collaboration between the scientific, business and arts communities is intended to foster multi-disciplinary education and research.

The Finnish government, in 2010, set out to create a university that fosters innovation, merging the three institutions into one. The university is composed of six schools with close to 17,000 students and 4,000 staff members, making it Finland's second largest university. The main campus of Aalto University is located in Otaniemi, Espoo. Aalto University Executive Education and Professional Development also operates in Otaniemi. In addition to the Helsinki metropolitan area, the university also operates its Bachelor's Programme in International Business in Mikkeli and the Metsähovi Radio Observatory in Kirkkonummi.

The university is named in honour of Alvar Aalto, a prominent Finnish architect, designer and alumnus of the former Helsinki University of Technology, who was also instrumental in designing a large part of the university's main campus in Otaniemi.

History

In 2004, a workgroup led by Anne Brunila of the Finnish Ministry of Finance concluded that Finland had too many universities and other institutes of tertiary education which should be consolidated. Following this, Yrjö Sotamaa, president of the University of Art and Design Helsinki at the time, proposed the merger of Aalto University's founding schools in his president's opening speech in 2005. Sotamaa's line of reasoning was that this move would create a unique interdisciplinary university that was needed to create new innovative thought.

The idea received attention within the Finnish Ministry of Education, which appointed Raimo Sailas, a leading official at the Ministry of Finance, to investigate the possibility of a merger. After Sailas' group reported that it considered the merger to be beneficial to the Finnish academic world and economy, the Finnish government decided to go on with the project on 11 November 2007.

On 29 May 2008 the government announced that the new university would be named after the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in honor of his achievements in technology, economics and art. The Finnish minister of education at the time, Sari Sarkomaa, together with representatives of Finnish industries and professional organisations, signed the Aalto University charter on 25 June 2008 in Helsinki. On 19 December 2008 Tuula Teeri was selected by the board to be the first president of Aalto University.

Aalto University started operating on 1 January 2010. During the establishment of the university, Finland's university law was revised to permit the institution to collect endowments. The university managed to reach its goal of collecting 200 million euros in private donations. The sum was augmented by 2.5 times by the Finnish state.

In a 2017 analysis by The Times Higher Education, Aalto University ranked 55th among technology challenger universities.

Helsinki University of Technology

As the Aalto University was founded the four schools of science and engineering were formed out of the departments of the Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), founded in 1849 by Grand Duke Nicholas I. It received university status in 1908. In 1966, the University of Technology moved from Hietalahti in downtown Helsinki to its current Otaniemi campus, designed by Alvar Aalto. At the time of creation of Aalto University, TKK had about 250 professors and approximately 15,000 students. This means the largest part of the Aalto University is formed from the former Helsinki University of Technology.

In 2011, the former University of Technology (then known as Aalto University School of Science and Technology) was split up into four schools, corresponding to the former TKK faculties: School of Chemical Technology (CHEM), School of Electrical Engineering (ELEC), School of Engineering (ENG), and School of Science and Technology (SCI).

Administration and organisation

Governance

The university, which is incorporated as Aalto University Foundation, is governed by the seven-member Aalto University Foundation Board. The board decides on the foundation's strategy, operation and financial issues, is responsible for any far-reaching plans and appoints the university president and vice rectors. Formerly working as the provost of Aalto University, Ilkka Niemelä was elected president of Aalto University in 2017. The first president of Aalto University was Tuula Teeri. The university is organized into six schools with their respective deans and administrative structures.

Schools

The university is organized since the beginning of 2011 into six schools formed out of the three merged universities. Each school has several departments and separate laboratories as well as a number of separate research and other units.

• School of Arts, Design and Architecture (Aalto ARTS)
• School of Chemical Engineering (Aalto CHEM)
• School of Business (Aalto BIZ)
• School of Electrical Engineering (Aalto ELEC)
• School of Engineering (Aalto ENG)
• School of Science and Technology (Aalto SCI)

Other units and institutes

• Aaltoes (Aalto Entrepreneurship Society), student-run entrepreneurship community
• Aalto University Learning Centre
• Aalto University Executive Education

Factories – interdisciplinary collaboration networks:

• Design Factory
• Media Factory
• Aalto Science Institute – interdisciplinary research initiative
• Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (joint research unit with University of Helsinki)

Helsinki Institute of Physics (operated jointly with University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä, Lappeenranta University of Technology and Tampere University of Technology)

Metsähovi Radio Observatory as part of Aalto ELEC.

Academics

Study in Science and Technology

All engineering programmes offered by the schools of science and technology lead to the degree of diplomi-insinööri (M.Sc. (Tech.), Master of Science in Technology), a five-year taught master's degree, which is fairly similar to the German Diplom-Ingenieur degrees. From 2005, according to the Bologna process, all students must also complete a bachelor's degree (B.Sc. (Tech), Bachelor of Science in Technology), in Finnish tekniikan kandidaatti or TkK, before the DI or architect's degree. However, the schools of science and technology do not offer programs terminating in a bachelor's degree; a student may only be accepted to study for the Master's level degree. The schools of science and technology require a bachelor's degree from foreign students studying in English, because only Master's studies are offered completely in English.

Undergraduate studies are generally quite similar in between different programs with a considerable part being taken by a tuition of a solid base in mathematics and physics.

Apart from numerous programs in Finnish/Swedish, various international Master's programs are offered exclusively for studies in English. The postgraduate degrees given are tekniikan lisensiaatti (Lic.Sc. (Tech.), Licenciate of Science in Technology) and tekniikan tohtori (D.Sc. (Tech.), Doctor of Science in Technology).

Finnish students are accepted mainly on the basis of result in the national DIA entrance exam. The exam variant taken by most entrants mainly tests quantitative ability in mathematics, physics and chemistry, but specialized tests are available for students applying to a number of programs. The score required for entry to the Aalto University varies much depending on the intended field of study, however, in general the scores required for the Aalto University are higher than for any other university granting entry through the DIA exam. For example, the mean sum of mathematics and physics DIA exam scores was 7.2 in the year 2010, whereas the mean minimum sum of mathematics and physics exam scores for gaining admission to an Aalto program was 17.1–20.1, depending on the priority point distribution. Aalto also contains five of the most selective programs with respect to the matriculation exam scores, out of approximately total of 50 university technology programs in the nation, of which approximately 30 are outside of Aalto, and the three most selective programs with respect to entrance exam and combined scores. The minimum scores required for these top programs are in the 95th–99th percentile range of the whole applicant pool, and approximately 98th-99.8th percentile of what would be the score distribution of the whole age group.

Campuses

The main university campus is located in Otaniemi, Espoo. The university also has activities in Töölö, Mikkeli and Metsähovi.

Otaniemi Campus

Since 2019, all of the Aalto University schools have been primarily located in Otaniemi, Espoo, roughly 10 km (6.2 mi) from the center of Helsinki. The original buildings of the campus were designed by Alvar Aalto. Several high-tech companies, the Finnish forest industry's joint experimental laboratory KCL, and business incubators Innopoli and Technopolis are also situated nearby. It is also directly adjacent to Keilaniemi, with the Life Science Center and the headquarters of several notable Finnish companies, such as Kone and Fortum. The Aalto University metro station connects Otaniemi to Helsinki via the Länsimetro line.

The Teekkarikylä Student Village, home to over 2,000 students, makes up the majority of residences in Otaniemi. There are over one hundred student organizations on campus, which provide a range of opportunities to take part in pastimes of various kinds, from sports to music.

Other locations

Aalto University retains ownership of the former campus of the School of Business, located in Töölö, Helsinki. As of 2019, the building is under renovation and primarily used by Aalto University Executive Education.

The School of Business also maintains a Bachelor's Programme in International Business, which is taught in Mikkeli. The university also owns and operates the Metsähovi Radio Observatory in Kirkkonummi.

Culture and student life

The Aalto University students are known for active student life.

An integral part of many student traditions play the brightly coloured overalls worn to many events. The colour of the overall signals what the student studies. For instance, students studying automation and robotics wear purple overalls, those studying electrical engineering wear white overalls, and chemical engineering students wear blue overalls. The student community has also organised important charity events. In fact, the name for these events tempaus, has entered common language to describe any carnival-like charity event.

The students of technology (teekkarit) are especially noticeable, as they wear a distinctive hat with a tuft on many occasions (both formal and informal). Technology students are also famous for, and Finland's leading practitioners of, student pranks (jäynä), similar in principle to MIT hacks. Their most widely publicised stunt took place in 1961, when a team of students smuggled a statue of Paavo Nurmi onto the 300-year-old wreck of Regalskeppet Vasa just days before its lifting from the bottom of the sea.

Although student traditions vary in between the different constituent schools common activities started to burgeon early after the foundation of Aalto University. The most noticeable student event of the first year of the university was Aalto on Tracks, where a group of 100 students came together to rent a private train which they traveled 10,000 km (6,200 mi) on from Helsinki to the Shanghai Expo enjoying multidisciplinary talks and workshops on the way. The event was such a success that the follow-up Aalto on waves is planned to arrange a trip by boat to South America. Aalto on Tracks also spurred students of Tongji University to arrange Tongji on Tracks which essentially takes the journey of Aalto on Tracks in the opposite direction.

Aalto Entrepreneurship Society is a multi-disciplinary society uniting students and graduates of all disciplines of the university. It aims to encourage high-tech, high-growth, scalable entrepreneurship by arranging get-togethers to spark ideas and innovations and aid start-up initiatives among the Aalto students.

Aalto Festival and MoA

Aalto Festival (2015–2019), formerly known as Masters of Aalto (2012–2014), and the Masters of Arts festival, MoA (2002–2011), and Think 2000 was an annual event in May where the newly graduated of the multidisciplinary university met the public.

An extensive exhibition showcased a wide array of works: everything from distinguished theses, individual statements, concepts and products arising from commercial collaboration to works of art. For the graduating students, the exhibition was an opportunity to interact with society, future employers, the media and other influential parties.

Notable people and famous alumni

All three constituent schools have played an integral part in educating many of the top names in their respective fields in Finland. After the Second World War Finland's economy grew and Finnish companies became players in the international markets requiring highly educated expertise and leadership. Both the schools of technology and economy catered to this need as the premier schools of their fields in the country. During the latter part of the 20th century the schools had to increase their student intake considerably to meet the demands of growing markets.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)